Pindling v. State, 311 Ga. 232

Victim Robert Pett was shot and killed July 13, 2013; police found his body on a back porch in Valdosta.
Pindling, Wallace, and Cortez were indicted for murder, armed robbery, and related offenses; Pindling was convicted at a joint trial and sentenced to life without parole plus consecutive terms.
Cortez testified she acted as "bait," directed Pett to the porch, saw Wallace and Pindling leave with Pett’s bag, heard shots, did not see who shot Pett, and assumed Pindling was the shooter; she also described prior shootings with a silver gun at the defendants’ residence.
Investigative evidence: texts/calls linking Wallace to Pett, rental car GPS showing travel to New York, a gun and Pett’s handgun found at Pindling’s residence, and ballistics matching the reassembled gun to Pett’s murder.
At trial the court gave a single-witness instruction (one witness may establish a fact) but did not give the accomplice-corroboration instruction; Pindling did not request or object to the omission and raised the issue on appeal under plain-error review.
The Supreme Court of Georgia reversed, concluding the omission of the accomplice-corroboration charge was clear error that likely affected the outcome and undermined the fairness of the proceedings.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the trial court erred by giving a single-witness charge without also instructing that accomplice testimony must be corroborated	Pindling: Cortez could be found an accomplice and was the sole eyewitness linking him to the shooting; omission was plain error	State: Cortez’s testimony was sufficiently corroborated by Wallace’s statement, phone records, GPS, presence evidence, and ballistics	Court: Reversed — failing to give accomplice-corroboration instruction while giving single-witness instruction was clear error likely affecting outcome and undermining fairness

Wilson v. State, 301 Ga. 689 (addresses appellate plain-error review)
Hood v. State, 303 Ga. 420 (sets four-prong plain-error standard)
Doyle v. State, 307 Ga. 609 (failure to give accomplice-corroboration charge likely affected outcome where accomplice was sole eyewitness)
State v. Johnson, 305 Ga. 237 (similar reversal where inculpatory evidence flowed primarily from an accomplice)
Raines v. State, 304 Ga. 582 (explains "slight" corroboration suffices under OCGA for accomplice testimony)
Stanbury v. State, 299 Ga. 125 (failure to charge on accomplice corroboration likely affected outcome when accomplice was sole identifier)