Davis v. State, 312 Ga. 870

On May 18, 2018, Jammie Rashad Davis shot Latravius Burks multiple times on the porch of Burks’s home; Burks later died. Davis’s three-year-old daughter and two other young children were present.
Police found a handgun in Burks’s pocket that had not been fired recently; Burks identified “Shad” (Davis) as his shooter at the scene.
Eyewitness testimony (including from the children) and a recorded police interview were admitted; Davis testified he acted in self-defense, claiming Burks had touched his daughter’s face and threatened/attacked him and had previously threatened him.
Davis was indicted for malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, three firearm counts, and three counts of third-degree cruelty to children; tried in July 2019, convicted, and sentenced to life plus a consecutive five-year firearm term.
On appeal Davis argued (1) insufficiency of the evidence because his actions were justified by self-defense and (2) plain error in the trial court’s failure to charge voluntary manslaughter based on provocation by Burks.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (Davis)	Defendant's Argument (State)	Held
Sufficiency of evidence (self-defense)	Evidence showed Davis acted in self-defense; convictions unsupported	Eyewitnesses, physical evidence, and Davis’s own admissions allowed the jury to reject self-defense	Affirmed — viewing evidence in favor of the verdict, a rational jury could disbelieve Davis’s self-defense claim and convict
Plain error for omission of voluntary manslaughter instruction	Burks’s touching of Davis’s daughter’s lips and subsequent attack constituted serious provocation requiring the charge	Brief non-sexual touching plus fighting did not obviously meet the level of provocation that mandates the charge; no controlling precedent making omission plain error	Affirmed — no plain error; the touching and fighting did not obviously require a voluntary manslaughter instruction

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (establishes standard for sufficiency of evidence review)
Dugger v. State, 297 Ga. 120 (explains when slight evidence of serious provocation requires voluntary manslaughter charge)
Scott v. State, 291 Ga. 156 (molestation-taunt can require manslaughter instruction)
Corley v. State, 308 Ga. 321 (jury may reject justification defenses)
Walter v. State, 304 Ga. 760 (plain-error requires controlling authority to show error is obvious)
Jackson v. State, 301 Ga. 878 (distinguishes provocation vs. self-defense contexts)
Smith v. State, 296 Ga. 731 (fear of gun or fighting alone not warrant manslaughter charge)
Morris v. State, 303 Ga. 192 (plain-error framework for jury-charge claims)
Malcolm v. State, 263 Ga. 369 (vacatur of felony murder by operation of law)