Blackmon v. State, 300 Ga. 35

On August 25, 2013, occupants of a tan/silver Tahoe shot into an Impala, killing Timothy Blalock and seriously wounding Timothy Ghiden near a shopping center.
Ghiden consistently identified the shooter by the moniker “Hot Boi John”; at a videotaped pretrial photographic lineup he identified appellant John Blackmon as that person.
Additional evidence included an Instagram photo of Blackmon with an assault rifle matching shell casings at the scene, and a jailhouse call in which Blackmon urged that Ghiden not appear at trial.
A jury convicted Blackmon of malice murder, two counts of felony murder (predicated on aggravated assault and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon), aggravated assault/battery counts, and firearm offenses; he received life plus 30 years.
Blackmon appealed, arguing (1) the photographic lineup was impermissibly suggestive (due process violation) and (2) the trial court erred in denying directed verdicts; the appellate court found those claims meritless.
The Court identified sentencing error: the trial court improperly merged and thereby failed to sentence Blackmon for unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon; that portion of the sentence was vacated and the case remanded for resentencing.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Admissibility of pretrial photographic identification	Pretrial lineup was impermissibly suggestive (photo differences; Ghiden on pain meds) leading to substantial likelihood of misidentification	Lineup contained photos of similar-age, similar-feature males; identification was unequivocal on videotape and not led by detectives	Identification procedure was not impermissibly suggestive; admission was proper
Sufficiency of the evidence / Directed verdicts	State’s case depended on Ghiden’s pretrial ID; without it evidence insufficient	Evidence (ID, Instagram photo, jail call, shell casings) was sufficient for a rational jury	Evidence was sufficient; denial of directed verdicts affirmed
Impact of witness’s medication on identification reliability	Medication impaired Ghiden’s perception/memory making ID unreliable	Medication issue goes to weight/credibility, not to whether the procedure was suggestive	Medication does not by itself render the procedure impermissibly suggestive; credibility for jury to decide
Sentencing / merger of offenses	N/A (appellant challenged other matters)	Trial court merged felony-murder predicates into malice murder but failed to recognize vacatur of felony-murder counts and thus merged unlawful possession improperly	Trial court erred by merging and failing to sentence for unlawful possession by a convicted felon; that portion of sentence vacated and case remanded for resentencing

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (sufficiency of evidence standard for convictions)
Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377 (due process limits on unduly suggestive identification procedures)
Sharp v. State, 286 Ga. 799 (Georgia standard for impermissibly suggestive out-of-court identifications)
Williams v. State, 290 Ga. 533 (if procedure not suggestive, court need not reach substantial likelihood of misidentification)
Clark v. State, 271 Ga. 6 (taint must come from identification method; other witness impairments go to credibility)
Miller v. State, 270 Ga. 741 (minor physical differences among photos do not render lineup impermissibly suggestive)
Pinkins v. State, 300 Ga. App. 17 (slight facial-feature variations in photo arrays not impermissibly suggestive)
Dean v. State, 273 Ga. 806 (jury resolves witness credibility and inconsistencies)
Hulett v. State, 296 Ga. 49 (principles governing merger and sentencing when felony-murder counts vacated)
Grant v. State, 298 Ga. 835 (standard applying Jackson review to directed-verdict denials)
Giddens v. State, 299 Ga. 109 (jury’s role in determining witness credibility and resolving conflicts)