Clarke v. State, 308 Ga. 630

On May 2, 2015 Rupert Clarke shot and killed his wife, Rosemarie Lebert‑Clarke; eight shell casings and a bullet fragment in the house matched Clarke’s handgun and six bullets were recovered from the victim.
Their adult son, Alex, heard shots, saw the victim on the floor, and called 911; Clarke surrendered to police and made multiple spontaneous statements (e.g., "I'm sorry," "I know what I did was wrong").
The couple had long‑standing marital discord focused on finances; defense theory at trial was that Clarke "snapped" and sought voluntary manslaughter, not murder.
Clarke was indicted on multiple counts, convicted of malice murder and possession of a firearm during a felony, sentenced to life plus five years, and appealed.
On appeal Clarke raised: (1) erroneous admission of Alex’s out‑of‑court statement (hearsay), (2) ineffective assistance for failing to object under the Confrontation Clause, (3) violation of the continuing‑witness rule when text‑message exhibits went out with the jury, and (4) plain error for failure to instruct that an uncorroborated confession cannot alone sustain a conviction.

Issue	Clarke's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Admission of Alex’s out‑of‑court statement that Clarke threatened to kill his wife over bills (hearsay)	Trial court erred in overruling hearsay objection; statement prejudiced jury	Even if erroneous, the statement was cumulative and weak; harmless beyond a reasonable doubt	Admission, if error, was harmless; did not contribute to verdict
Confrontation Clause / ineffective assistance for failing to object to Alex’s statement	Counsel ineffective for not objecting on Confrontation Clause grounds	Any Confrontation error (and any failure to object) did not prejudice Clarke given strength of other evidence	Ineffective assistance claim fails for lack of prejudice under Strickland
Continuing‑witness rule: sending text message printouts (State’s Exhibits 5 & 154) out with the jury	Sending text printouts unfairly emphasized written material and harmed chance of manslaughter verdict	Text messages were original documentary evidence (not reduced oral testimony) and properly went to jury	Trial court did not err; exhibits properly sent with jury
Plain error: trial court failed to instruct jury that an uncorroborated confession cannot alone support conviction	Failure to give corroboration instruction was plain error likely affecting outcome	Any instruction error did not affect outcome because confession was extensively corroborated by physical and testimonial evidence	No plain error—ample corroboration made instruction omission harmless

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (standard for sufficiency of the evidence)
Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (Confrontation Clause framework)
Perez v. State, 303 Ga. 188 (harmless error standard under Georgia Evidence Code)
Keller v. State, 308 Ga. __ (842 SE2d 22) (documents vs. written testimony; exhibits that are original documents may go out with jury)
Hood v. State, 303 Ga. 420 (plain‑error instructional test)
English v. State, 300 Ga. 471 (corroboration requirement for confessions and harmlessness)