Long v. State, 309 Ga. 721

Jennifer Long and her husband Timothy adopted 18-month-old Alexis in Nov. 2011; DFCS oversight ended after adoption.
On Jan. 29, 2012, Alexis was found unresponsive at home after returning from church; she was hospitalized, declared brain-dead, and died; medical examiner ruled cause of death blunt-force head trauma.
Alexis had a subdural hematoma, retinal hemorrhages, scalp hair loss, fluid and swelling on the back of her head, and numerous bruises of varying ages and shapes consistent with repeated nonaccidental trauma.
A broken wooden changing table was found in Alexis’s room; Appellant’s statements to police changed over time (saying Alexis went limp on the floor, later that Alexis fell from or was thrown onto the broken changing table).
Timothy pled guilty to second-degree child cruelty and testified for the State, saying he was near the car and heard a noise; Appellant was alone in the room at the time per her admissions.
Jury convicted Appellant of malice murder and first-degree child cruelty; she received life without parole and 20 concurrent years; she appealed arguing insufficiency of the evidence and ineffective assistance of counsel.

Issue	Long's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of the evidence (circumstantial & due process)	Evidence did not exclude reasonable hypothesis that Timothy inflicted fatal injuries; evidence was circumstantial under OCGA §24-14-6	Jury could reasonably disbelieve Timothy, credit inconsistencies in Long’s accounts, and infer Long’s guilt from medical/physical evidence and broken table	Affirmed — viewed in light most favorable to verdict, evidence (medical, physical, and testimonial) was sufficient to exclude other reasonable hypotheses and satisfy Jackson v. Virginia standard
Ineffective assistance of counsel	Trial counsel erred by not objecting to prosecutor's closing and by presenting an unreasonable defense theory (insufficient medical investigation; reliance on accident/involuntary manslaughter theory)	Prosecutor’s closing was permissible (inferences from nonproduction of witnesses); defense pursued accident/involuntary manslaughter and pointed to Timothy; appellant failed to show what additional investigation would have produced	Affirmed — no deficient performance: failure to object would have been meritless; no prejudice shown and appellant did not proffer what additional investigation would have revealed

Smith v. State, 307 Ga. 680 (circumstantial-evidence test; jury decides reasonableness of alternative hypotheses)
Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (constitutional standard for sufficiency of the evidence)
Chavez v. State, 307 Ga. 804 (deference to jury credibility determinations on sufficiency review)
Virger v. State, 305 Ga. 281 (sufficiency and circumstantial evidence principles)
Gomez v. State, 301 Ga. 445 (sufficiency review standards)
McGee v. State, 260 Ga. 178 (permissible inferences from nonproduction of witnesses in closing)
Isaac v. State, 263 Ga. 872 (similar rule on nonproduction of witnesses)
Lupoe v. State, 300 Ga. 233 (requirement to proffer what additional investigation would have shown to prove prejudice)
Gaston v. State, 307 Ga. 634 (Strickland standard and assessing counsel performance)
Vega v. State, 285 Ga. 32 (jury's role in resolving credibility conflicts)