Crawford v. State, 312 Ga. 452

On November 3, 2015, Antonio McBride was shot and killed after a group drove to Atlanta to buy marijuana; two bullets recovered were fired from the same gun.
Appellant Gerrod Crawford and Kahreek Flowers were indicted on murder and related charges; Flowers later pled guilty to murder and testified at Crawford’s trial.
Witness accounts conflicted: Flowers gave multiple versions (including that he alone shot McBride and versions implicating Crawford); a witness (Johnson) corroborated Flowers’s account that Crawford exited the car, pistol‑whipped the victim, and pointed a gun before Flowers fired.
Crawford was acquitted of malice murder but convicted of felony murder and related offenses; he was a first‑offender probationer and was sentenced accordingly.
At trial the prosecutor told jurors that if they wrote "guilty" on involuntary manslaughter in addition to murder, Crawford would "get away"; defense counsel did not object during closing but objected the next morning.
The trial court ruled the prosecutor’s comment improper but found no prejudice from counsel’s failure to object; the Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed.

Issue	Crawford's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Whether the trial court erred by denying a directed verdict (sufficiency of the evidence)	Evidence showed Flowers admitted being the shooter and testified Crawford was not involved; thus evidence insufficient	Conflicting witness statements and corroboration (Johnson) permitted a rational jury to find Crawford a party to the crimes	Denial of directed verdict affirmed — evidence legally sufficient under Jackson v. Virginia
Whether trial counsel was ineffective for failing to timely object to prosecutor’s closing remark that Crawford would "get away" if jury wrote guilty on involuntary manslaughter	Counsel’s failure was deficient and prejudicial because prosecutor mischaracterized law and could confuse jurors	Any deficiency did not prejudice Crawford because the court corrected the error, instructed properly, and evidence of involuntary manslaughter was weak	Ineffective‑assistance claim rejected — no Strickland prejudice shown

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (establishes the constitutional standard for reviewing sufficiency of the evidence)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (sets two‑part test for ineffective assistance of counsel)
Jackson v. State, 303 Ga. 487 (a person concerned in a crime may be convicted even if another person fired the fatal shot)
Draughn v. State, 311 Ga. 378 (discusses assessing Strickland prejudice in context of trial errors and jury instructions)
Boyd v. State, 306 Ga. 204 (jury resolves conflicts and inconsistencies in evidence)