Walker-Madden v. State, 301 Ga. 744

Walker-Madden was convicted by a jury of murder, aggravated assault, cruelty to children in the first degree, and aggravated sexual battery; this Court previously affirmed convictions but found a sentencing error.
On first appeal (Walker-Madden v. State), this Court held the evidence was legally sufficient to support the jury’s guilty verdicts on all counts.
The trial court had improperly merged two convictions with the murder conviction and therefore failed to sentence on those counts; the case was remanded for resentencing under this Court’s guidance.
On remand the trial court resentenced Walker-Madden: 20 years for cruelty to children and life for aggravated sexual battery, both concurrent with the existing life without parole murder sentence.
Walker-Madden appealed again, asserting the evidence was insufficient to sustain the convictions for which he was resentenced; the State moved to dismiss the appeal.
The Georgia Supreme Court dismissed the appeal as raising an issue already decided on the first appeal and therefore not available on a subsequent appeal from a resentencing order.

Issue	Walker-Madden's Argument	State's Argument	Held
Whether sufficiency of the evidence may be litigated on appeal from a resentencing after remand	Evidence insufficient to support convictions resentenced on remand	Prior appellate determination of sufficiency is binding; new appeal should be limited to issues arising from the new sentencing order	Dismissed: sufficiency cannot be relitigated on resentencing appeal when it was or could have been raised on the prior appeal

Walker-Madden v. State, 299 Ga. 32 (affirming convictions and finding evidence sufficient)
Hulett v. State, 296 Ga. 49 (guidance on sentencing when convictions were merged improperly)
Kent v. A. O. White, Jr., Consulting Engineer, 266 Ga. App. 822 (issues not raised on first appeal will not be considered later)
Foster v. State, 290 Ga. 599 (issues decided on first trial appeal cannot be relitigated after remand and retrial)
Jackson v. State, 323 Ga. App. 602 (sentencing fairness issues should have been raised in first appeal and cannot be raised anew after remand)
Richards v. State, 275 Ga. 190 (support for dismissal where issues were previously decided)