Brown v. State, 298 Ga. 880

On Jan. 18, 2008, Roger Brown got into a confrontation at a package store after urinating near a dumpster; he retrieved a claw hammer and pry bar and, while near Dennis Freeman (a bystander) and Roger Emory (the apparent target), struck Freeman in the head, killing him. Emory had armed himself with an ax handle in fear for his safety. Freeman did not threaten or aggress against Brown.
Brown was indicted for malice murder, felony murder, and aggravated assaults; after a jury trial he was convicted of malice murder and aggravated assault of Emory and sentenced to life plus 20 years (felony murder vacated by operation of law). Conviction as to a separate alleged victim (Shipman) was not returned.
Brown testified he acted in self-defense against Emory and that Freeman was struck accidentally during a "warning" swing; he admitted Freeman was an innocent bystander.
The trial court admitted autopsy photographs of Freeman to show the extent of the skull fracture after the medical examiner testified they were necessary.
The court gave a justification (self-defense) instruction tailored to the aggravated assault of Emory (not to Freeman), at Brown’s request; the jury rejected self-defense and found Brown guilty of aggravated assault of Emory.
Brown appealed raising sufficiency, photographic evidence admissibility, plain error in the jury charge on justification, and ineffective assistance of trial counsel; the Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed.

Issue	Brown's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of the evidence for convictions	Evidence insufficient to prove malice murder and aggravated assault beyond reasonable doubt	Evidence (witness testimony, Brown’s actions/words, and flight) supports convictions	Affirmed: evidence sufficient under Jackson v. Virginia standard
Admissibility of autopsy photographs	Photos unduly prejudicial and should be excluded	Photos relevant to show extent of skull fracture and necessary per medical examiner	Affirmed: probative value not substantially outweighed by prejudice; admission not an abuse of discretion
Jury instruction on justification (self-defense)	Trial court erred by giving a justification charge referring to assault rather than the pattern homicide charge	Charge was tailored per Brown’s request to Emory (the asserted aggressor); any error was invited and harmless	Affirmed: error, if any, invited/waived and no plain error shown affecting outcome
Ineffective assistance of counsel	Trial counsel pursued untenable defenses and failed to argue transferred intent, prejudicing Brown	Counsel reasonably pursued lesser-offense defenses and justification instructions were given; no prejudice shown and tactical choices were reasonable	Affirmed: Strickland not met — performance not shown deficient or prejudicial

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (establishes sufficiency standard for criminal convictions)
Brown v. State, 250 Ga. 862 (1983) (autopsy photographs admissible only if necessary to show material facts)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984) (two-prong test for ineffective assistance of counsel)
Alvelo v. State, 290 Ga. 609 (standards for plain error review of jury instructions)
Demery v. State, 287 Ga. 805 (trial court may instruct jury on lesser offenses presented)
McKenzie v. State, 284 Ga. 342 (tactical decisions generally do not support ineffective-assistance claims unless patently unreasonable)