Turner v. State, 300 Ga. 513

On Jan. 9, 2012, Earlin Turner (a convicted felon) and an acquaintance, Cuevin Stringer, were in a BP convenience store in Conley, GA; cashier Damodar Pathak and employee Joseph Pryor were working alone.
A confrontation in the store’s gaming room escalated into a scuffle; surveillance cameras captured much of the struggle (no audio; no camera in the gaming room initial contact).
Witnesses (Stringer and Pryor) saw Turner produce a chrome revolver; Pryor observed Turner shoot Pathak in the torso during the struggle; Pathak was shot three times and died from a chest wound.
Turner was indicted for malice murder, two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault, and firearm offenses; convicted by a jury and sentenced to life without parole for malice murder plus consecutive firearms sentences; felony-murder counts later vacated by operation of law.
On appeal Turner asserted ineffective assistance of counsel for (a) failing to assert self-defense and (b) failing to properly advise him about his right to testify; the trial court denied his motion for new trial and this Court affirmed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether counsel was ineffective for not asserting self-defense	Turner: counsel should have pursued self-defense based on struggle and claim that he did not shoot	State/Trial counsel: Turner consistently denied being the shooter and never claimed Pathak was armed; counsel reasonably chose to attack identification	Denied — counsel’s strategy to challenge ID was reasonable under Strickland; self-defense charge requires defendant to admit shooting
Whether counsel failed to adequately advise Turner about right to testify	Turner: he was not properly informed and thus deprived of choosing to testify	State/Trial court: counsel and trial judge advised Turner; Turner acknowledged understanding and opted not to testify	Denied — record shows Turner was informed and voluntarily declined; no Strickland violation

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (sufficiency of evidence standard)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (ineffective assistance two-prong test)
McLean v. State, 297 Ga. 81 (self-defense charge requires defendant to admit the shooting)
Wright v. State, 291 Ga. 869 (standard of review for ineffective assistance claims)
Fuller v. State, 277 Ga. 505 (failure to prove Strickland prongs excuses examining both prongs)
Robinson v. State, 277 Ga. 75 (accept trial court’s factual findings; independent legal review)
Smith v. State, 283 Ga. 237 (different reasonable strategies do not show ineffectiveness)
Mobley v. State, 264 Ga. 854 (counsel’s duty to advise on right to testify requires record support)
Malcolm v. State, 263 Ga. 369 (vacatur of duplicative felony-murder convictions)