Hinton v. State, 304 Ga. 605

In May 2013 Hinton and an accomplice lay in wait to rob Henry Reeves; when Reeves arrived they ambushed him and he was shot and killed.
Ballistic evidence linked a .22 pistol Hinton had given his accomplice to casings at the scene; Hinton was wounded by a .22 round in the back and later admitted he had been at the scene after initially denying it.
A jury acquitted Hinton of malice murder but convicted him of felony murder (predicated on aggravated assault), a second felony-murder count (vacated by operation of law), aggravated assault (merged), attempted armed robbery, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Trial counsel requested a voluntary manslaughter instruction, which the trial court denied for lack of evidence; counsel did not renew the request after the charge conference.
Hinton appealed, arguing (1) ineffective assistance for failing to renew the manslaughter charge and (2) sentencing error for failing to merge attempted armed robbery with the felony-murder sentence.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether counsel’s failure to renew a requested voluntary-manslaughter instruction constituted ineffective assistance	Hinton: counsel was deficient for not preserving the manslaughter charge for appeal and that omission prejudiced him because jury might have convicted of voluntary manslaughter instead of felony murder	State: even if counsel erred, any evidence supporting voluntary manslaughter was minimal and overwhelming evidence supported felony murder, so no reasonable probability of a different verdict	Court assumed deficiency but found no prejudice under Strickland — no reasonable probability jury would have reached voluntary manslaughter verdict
Whether the trial court erred by not merging attempted armed robbery into the felony-murder sentence	Hinton: attempted armed robbery should have merged such that he wouldn’t receive a separate sentence after the court chose which felony-murder verdict to vacate	State: trial court properly exercised discretion in selecting which felony-murder to sentence on and the predicate offenses did not merge because each requires an element the other does not	Court affirmed: trial court properly sentenced on felony murder predicated on aggravated assault, merged aggravated assault into it, vacated the other felony-murder count, and correctly imposed a separate sentence for attempted armed robbery because the crimes do not merge

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (establishes standard for sufficiency of the evidence)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (two-prong test for ineffective assistance of counsel)
Wadley v. State, 258 Ga. 465 (assessing prejudice where manslaughter instruction denied/preserved)
Cowart v. State, 294 Ga. 333 (trial court discretion in selecting which felony-murder verdict to vacate)
Davis v. State, 301 Ga. 397 (merger and sentencing principles following felony-murder convictions)
Hill v. State, 281 Ga. 795 (permitting separate sentence on armed robbery when predicate merged into sentenced felony murder)