Green v. State, 291 Ga. 579

Appellant Brandon Green was convicted of murder for the shooting death of Teressa Owens.
The incident occurred at the Old English Inn, where Green and Owens lived on the same floor and had argued earlier that night.
Green returned to Owens’s room, confronted her with a shotgun, and killed her after telling her to shut her mouth.
Two eyewitnesses identified Green as the shooter and testified consistently with the prosecution.
Awarded life imprisonment for felony murder; other counts were merged/vacated; an out-of-time appeal and a motion for new trial were pursued.
The sole appellate issue concerns whether trial counsel was ineffective for not objecting to certain hearsay evidence against Green.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Ineffective assistance for failing to object to hearsay	Green argues hearsay statements were improperly admitted	State contends counsel strategically allowed it to challenge contradictions	Trial strategy valid; no prejudice shown
Sufficiency of the evidence	Evidence proves guilt beyond a reasonable doubt	Not disputed that eyewitnesses’ testimony suffices	Sufficient evidence supports conviction

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (U.S. 1979) (sufficiency standard for federal review of state convictions)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (U.S. 1984) (two-prong ineffective assistance standard)
Washington v. State, 276 Ga. 655 (Ga. 2003) (Strickland analysis applied to Georgia claims)
Battles v. State, 290 Ga. 226 (Ga. 2011) (context for evaluating performance and prejudice)
Nichols v. State, 281 Ga. 483 (Ga. 2007) (trial strategy and admissibility considerations in ruling on objections)
Terry v. State, 284 Ga. 119 (Ga. 2008) (evidence impact in appellate assessment of prejudice)