Foster v. State, 288 Ga. 98

Background

Foster and Octavia Robinson had a romantic relationship that ended due to jealousy and possessiveness; they briefly reconnected but did not resume dating.
On February 6–7, 2004, Foster allegedly attacked Robinson’s children at her Clayton County home after a tirade in which he damaged property and stated the children would die.
Tacara Judon (age 5) died from blunt force trauma; Ronald Porter (age 10) was severely injured and later required extensive medical care.
Police found damage consistent with a violent entry, including ransacked garage doors, a broken TV, and a tire lug wrench with blood matching Porter’s DNA; Foster later called 911 admitting an intent to kill the children.
DNA from the tire wrench and Foster’s boots matched Ronald Porter’s blood; the State pursued the death penalty; Foster was convicted of malice murder, aggravated assault, burglary, and criminal damage to property, and sentenced to life without parole for malice murder.
Foster challenged multiple trial issues on appeal, including sufficiency of the evidence, jury composition, jury voir dire, jury instructions on voluntary manslaughter, admission of victim-impact evidence, and effectiveness of counsel; the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the convictions.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of evidence for malice murder and aggravated assault	Date of offenses alleged in indictment was wrong; acts occurred after midnight on Feb. 7.	Indictment date is material or essential; insufficient proof tying acts to Feb. 6–7.	Sufficient evidence supported malice murder and aggravated assault; date in indictment not required.
Burglary sufficiency and intent to commit a felony	State failed to prove entry with intent to commit a felony inside Robinson’s home.	Intent may be inferred from conduct before, during, and after the crime; combined acts show burglary.	Evidence sufficient to support burglary conviction; intent inferred from conduct.
Grand and traverse jury composition challenges	Jury lists misrepresent minority groups (notably Hispanics) and used invalid sources; six-member requirement not met.	Five-member board acceptable; disparities within constitutional bounds; no intentional discrimination proven.	No reversible error; challenge to jury composition failed under the applicable standards.
Voir dire restriction on jurors' views of law enforcement	Should be allowed to ask if jurors trust police testimony more than others.	Excluding such questions is proper; not error to limit inquiry about credibility of police testimony.	Not error to refuse such voir dire; permissible limits recognized.
Victim-impact testimony and counsel ineffective assistance	Oral victim-impact statements and alleged ineffective assistance tainted sentencing; improper procedures.	Statutory guidelines allowed victim-impact evidence and asserted defense fails to show prejudice.	Victim-impact evidence properly admitted under OCGA 17-10-1.2; no reversible prejudice shown; trial counsel not ineffective.

Key Cases Cited

Waits v. State, 282 Ga. 1 (Ga. 2007) (date-location-flexible proof not require exact date in indictment)
Parks v. State, 272 Ga. 353 (Ga. 2000) (intent may be inferred from conduct during crime)
Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (U.S. Supreme Ct. 1979) (sufficiency standard for evidence)
Williams v. State, 287 Ga. 735 (Ga. 2010) (Decennial Census as benchmark for jury cross-section representation)
Humphreys v. State, 287 Ga. 63 (Ga. 2010) (jury pool composition standards and disparities)
Gissendaner v. State, 272 Ga. 704 (Ga. 2000) (forced balancing in jury pools not unconstitutional)
Simmons v. State, 282 Ga. 183 (Ga. 2007) (limitations on voir dire regarding police credibility)
Jones v. State, 282 Ga. 784 (Ga. 2007) (aggravating factors notice in death-penalty cases)
Terrell v. State, 276 Ga. 34 (Ga. 2002) (notice and admissibility of aggravating circumstances)
Rice v. State, 281 Ga. 149 (Ga. 2006) (jury pool representation and criteria)