White v. State, 302 Ga. 806

Background

Tracey Bernard White was indicted for malice murder, felony murder, and possession of a firearm in the death of Larry Miller; jury convicted and sentenced to life plus five years. The convictions arose from White shooting Miller in the back after a confrontation following an earlier assault on White at a club. White turned himself in the same day.
White testified he shot in fear after the victim threatened him and made a motion toward his pants; the State presented prior-incident evidence showing White once shot another man in the back in a dispute.
White did not challenge sufficiency of the evidence; the Court independently found the evidence sufficient under Jackson v. Virginia.
On appeal White raised two principal claims: (1) the trial court’s reasonable-doubt instruction used language previously disapproved in Coleman v. State; and (2) he was deprived of his constitutional right to be effectively present at trial due to poor courtroom acoustics and inability to hear.
Trial transcript shows counsel requested the defendant be seated nearer to hear; the court refused to move White. White did not contemporaneously object at trial or move for a mistrial on hearing grounds and first raised the issue at the motion-for-new-trial hearing.
The motion-for-new-trial hearing record included testimony that courtroom acoustics were poor, but White did not identify any specific portion of the trial he missed due to inability to hear nor show he notified counsel during trial that he could not hear.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the trial court’s reasonable-doubt instruction misstated burden of proof	White: court defined reasonable doubt using language disapproved in Coleman, which could mislead jurors	State: charge as a whole (presumption of innocence, State’s burden beyond reasonable doubt, no jury copy) adequately conveyed standard	Court: Although some language was disapproved, viewing the instructions as a whole satisfied due process; no reversal required.
Whether White was deprived of the right to be effectively present at trial due to poor acoustics	White: poor courtroom acoustics and denial of seating closer deprived him of ability to hear proceedings, presumed prejudicial	State: White failed to object at trial or move for mistrial; he hasn’t shown he missed or complained during trial	Court: Right-to-presence violation was not shown—White waived by failing to object and did not prove he missed trial portions; claim fails.

Key Cases Cited

Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 (sufficiency of evidence reviewed under rational-jury standard)
Coleman v. State, 271 Ga. 800 (disapproved certain reasonable-doubt language)
Anderson v. State, 286 Ga. 57 (harmlessness/charge-as-a-whole review of burden-of-proof instructions)
Mangum v. State, 274 Ga. 573 (instructional error analyzed in context of whole charge)
Brewner v. State, 302 Ga. 6 (due-process right to be present is presumptively prejudicial if violated)
Jones v. State, 190 Ga. App. 416 (defendant must object at trial regarding courtroom acoustics to preserve claim)
Burney v. State, 299 Ga. 813 (failure to take certain steps at trial can constitute waiver on appeal)
Hanifa v. State, 269 Ga. 797 (waiver where defendant failed to voice contemporaneous objection to trial conduct)
Malcolm v. State, 263 Ga. 369 (merger/vacatur principles regarding multiple murder convictions)