Flood v. State
311 Ga. 800
Ga.2021Background
- Flood and victim Bobby Burns were longtime, intermittently cohabiting partners with a history of arguments; Flood admitted she was controlling and had struck Burns previously.
- On April 21, 2016, Flood stabbed Burns in the upper left chest with a boning knife; autopsy showed a three-inch wound that caused death and would have produced profuse bleeding; toxicology showed alcohol and cocaine in Burns’s system.
- Flood claimed she acted in self-defense, saying Burns pushed her and raised a hand; she left the scene with her grandchild, did not call 911, and made no contemporaneous report of a stabbing.
- Police interviewed Flood two days later; she had no defensive injuries and told officers she did not see much blood; other tenants heard arguments that night and one later discovered Burns’s body.
- Procedural posture: Flood was convicted of felony murder and possession of a knife in commission of a felony; sentenced to life plus five years; appealed arguing (1) insufficient evidence for felony murder (self-defense), (2) multiple jury-instruction errors (including sequencing, recharge, and omission of a pattern felony-murder relation instruction), and (3) improper prosecutorial character suggestion during closing.
Issues
| Issue | Flood's Argument | State's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sufficiency of evidence / self-defense | Evidence supports acquittal or at most voluntary manslaughter; Flood stabbed only to defend herself and left believing Burns was not fatally wounded | Viewing evidence in the light most favorable to the jury, a rational jury could reject self-defense given Flood’s admissions, lack of defensive injuries, failure to seek help, and blood evidence | Court affirmed: evidence sufficient for felony murder; jury could reject self-defense |
| Jury-charge sequencing (Edge) | Court improperly required jurors to consider manslaughter only after acquitting of murder by giving mitigating-circumstances instruction before voluntary manslaughter elements | The charge, the oral recharge, and the verdict form together properly instructed jurors to consider mitigation and manslaughter | No error; instructions as a whole adequate |
| Jury recharge clarification during deliberations | Recharge was incomplete and failed to explain distinctions between malice and felony murder intent | Court correctly recharged: explained felony and malice murder are both murder and voluntary manslaughter is the lesser-included; foreperson found it helpful | No abuse of discretion; no plain error |
| Omission of pattern charge on relationship between underlying felony and homicide (2.10.30) | Failure to give the pattern instruction orally prejudiced Flood; written copy given later insufficient to correct an erroneous oral charge | The omitted instruction was provided in writing during deliberations; given facts (stab caused death), omission was harmless | No plain error; omission harmless |
| Prosecutor’s comment about Flood’s drug use | Prosecutor improperly injected character evidence; prejudicial | Past drug use had been elicited in testimony; court sustained objection and instructed jury to disregard; any error harmless given the evidence | No reversible error; any implication harmless |
Key Cases Cited
- Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 304 (constitutional standard for sufficiency review)
- Edge v. State, 261 Ga. 865 (1992) (sequential manslaughter instruction guidance)
- Leeks v. State, 303 Ga. 104 (plain-error test elements)
- Ortiz v. State, 291 Ga. 3 (order of instructing on homicide offenses)
- Ware v. State, 305 Ga. 457 (relationship between felony and felony-murder instruction)
- Rowland v. State, 306 Ga. 59 (verdict form treated as part of jury instructions)
- Elvie v. State, 289 Ga. 779 (charge-as-a-whole sufficiency on manslaughter consideration)
- Dent v. State, 303 Ga. 110 (self-defense is a jury question)
- State v. Lane, 308 Ga. 10 (cumulative-error standard)
- Barnes v. State, 305 Ga. 18 (trial court duty to recharge when jury requests clarification)