Perdue v. State, 298 Ga. 841

On May 21, 2008, Shawn Perdue was left alone with his girlfriend’s two-month-old daughter, Kyliah Mack; the child was alive and playing when the mother left that morning.
Perdue admitted holding and shaking the infant for several minutes without supporting her head after she would not stop crying; the baby later vomited, became unresponsive, and was found cool to the touch.
Paramedics and hospital staff determined Kyliah was dead on arrival; autopsy showed blunt-force head trauma, retinal and brain hemorrhages, and a fresh buttock hemorrhage consistent with homicidal shaking.
Perdue gave inconsistent statements about timing and events, at times saying the baby choked on milk and at other times that he left and returned to find her unresponsive.
A jury convicted Perdue of malice murder; he was sentenced to life imprisonment. The felony-murder conviction was vacated by operation of law. Perdue’s amended motion for new trial was denied and he appealed.

Issue	Perdue's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Whether evidence was sufficient for malice murder	Evidence was not sufficient; verdict contrary to evidence	Evidence (injuries, autopsy, conduct) supports conviction beyond a reasonable doubt	Court: Evidence sufficient under Jackson v. Virginia; conviction affirmed
Whether the trial court applied correct standard when denying new trial on general grounds (OCGA §§ 5-5-20, 5-5-21)	Trial court used Jackson sufficiency standard, failed to exercise discretion as the "thirteenth juror"	Trial court explicitly weighed evidence and exercised discretion; referenced bench observations	Court: No error — trial court exercised its discretion and properly denied new trial
Whether trial counsel was ineffective for not procuring expert witnesses due to cost	Counsel’s failure to call experts was deficient and prejudicial	Counsel made a strategic, reasonable decision after consulting potential experts and drew favorable testimony via cross-examination; no prejudice shown	Court: No Strickland violation — decision was reasonable strategy and defendant failed to show prejudice

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (1979) (legal standard for sufficiency of the evidence review)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984) (two-prong test for ineffective assistance of counsel)
Walker v. State, 292 Ga. 262 (2013) (trial court must exercise discretion as thirteenth juror on general grounds motion for new trial)
Brown v. State, 292 Ga. 454 (2013) (calls to trial strategy in expert-witness decisions)
Gomillion v. State, 296 Ga. 678 (2015) (discussion of trial-court duties on new-trial motions)
Torres v. State, 297 Ga. 32 (2015) (application of Strickland in Georgia)
Gibson v. State, 290 Ga. 6 (2011) (role of cross-examination and expert evidence in shaken-baby cases)