Shaw v. State, 292 Ga. 871

Shaw was convicted of malice murder of Baron Harbin by a Cobb County jury.
The incident occurred June 21, 2009, after Baron confronted Shaw at Shaw's apartment regarding the children.
Shaw retrieved a large knife, a scuffle ensued with Baron who was unarmed and sustained fatal stab wounds.
Shaw fled, discarded the knife, and later confessed to police that he stabbed Baron to defend himself.
On appeal, Shaw challenged sufficiency of evidence, lack of retreat-duty instruction, and ineffective assistance of counsel.
The trial court denied post-trial motions; the appellate court affirmed the conviction.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of the evidence	Shaw: insufficient evidence of malice murder.	Shaw: mitigating self-defense undercuts requisite intent.	Evidence sufficient to support guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Duty to retreat instruction (plain error)	Failure to instruct on no duty to retreat prejudiced Shaw.	No plain error; adequate self-defense charging given.	No plain error; no probable effect on outcome; instruction deemed sufficient.
Ineffective assistance of counsel	Counsel failed to call witnesses, seek photographs, and request certain charges.	Counsel's strategy reasonable; no prejudice shown.	No ineffective assistance; defense strategy reasonable; no prejudice.

White v. State, 291 Ga. 7 (Ga. 2012) (standard for plain-error review and trial fairness)
Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (U.S. 1979) (sufficiency of evidence review for criminal conviction)
Mitchell v. State, 283 Ga. 341 (Ga. 2008) (duty to retreat considerations and waiver under prior law)
Shank v. State, 290 Ga. 844 (Ga. 2012) (plain-error analysis and invited error considerations)
Gear v. State, 288 Ga. 500 (Ga. 2011) (trial evidence and use of deadly-force charges)
DeLeon v. State, 289 Ga. 782 (Ga. 2011) (plain-error framework and effect on outcome)