Singleton v. State

533 S.E.2d 457 | Ga. Ct. App. | 2000

McMURRAY, Senior Appellate Judge.

In Singleton v. State,¹ we affirmed Rickey Singleton’s conviction. The Supreme Court of Georgia thereafter granted certiorari, vacated our judgment, and remanded for reconsideration of our holding in Division 1 in light of Parks v. McClung,² Sloan v. Sanders,³ Wharton v. Anderson,⁴ Larry v. Hicks,⁵ and Jones v. Wharton,⁶ in which the Supreme Court held that waiver of a constitutional right will not be inferred from a silent record. Held:

Upon reconsideration of Division 1 of our prior decisión⁷ in light of the above-referenced authorities, we vacate our judgment therein and find that the trial court erred in failing to obtain a knowing and voluntary waiver of appointed counsel from Singleton on the record, effectively denying Singleton his right to trial counsel. Accordingly, we reverse and remand for a new trial, adhering to our holdings in Divisions 2 through 12 of our prior opinion,⁸ as we were not directed to reconsider these and the issues there decided may recur upon any retrial of this case.

Judgment reversed.

Johnson, C. J, and Phipps, J., concur.

1 240 Ga. App. 240 (522 SE2d 734).

2 271 Ga. 795, 798 (507 SE2d 799).

3 271 Ga. 299, 300 (519 SE2d 219).

4 270 Ga. 22, 23 (1) (504 SE2d 670).

5 268 Ga. 487, 488 (491 SE2d 373).

6 253 Ga. 82, 83 (316 SE2d 749).

7 Singleton v. State, 240 Ga. App. at 240 (1), supra.

8 Id. at 240-242 (2)-(12).