Russell v. State, 319 Ga. 556

Rendell Russell was convicted of malice murder and related crimes following the machete killing of Gregory James in Kenisha Shepherd's apartment in Cobb County in 2020.
The confrontation occurred after Russell, who recently ended his relationship with Shepherd, entered her apartment uninvited in the early hours, bringing a machete and encountering Shepherd and her new boyfriend, James.
Russell attacked James with a machete after a brief argument, causing fatal injuries; evidence showed James had a handgun but Russell stated he was not afraid of being shot.
Russell fled the scene with the machete and James’s gun, later apprehended at a nearby residence after attempting to clean up.
Russell was sentenced to life without parole and additional consecutive and concurrent terms for related offenses.
On appeal, Russell challenged the sufficiency of the evidence and argued ineffective assistance of counsel for not seeking pretrial immunity under Georgia self-defense law.

Issue	Russell's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of Evidence (Self-Defense)	Evidence didn’t disprove justification	Jury could reject self-defense; Russell was aggressor	Evidence was sufficient; conviction affirmed
Ineffective Assistance (Immunity Motion)	Counsel's failure to seek pretrial immunity motion	Counsel's decision was reasonable; no merit to motion	No ineffectiveness; strategic choice upheld

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (Constitutional standard for sufficiency of evidence)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (Standard for ineffective assistance of counsel)
Mathis v. State, 309 Ga. 110 (Burden for immunity motions in Georgia; preponderance standard)
Dent v. State, 303 Ga. 110 (Trial counsel strategic decisions on immunity motions)
Goodson v. State, 305 Ga. 246 (Requirement that defendant show reasonable probability of success on unfiled motion)