(DOWNLOAD) "Blankenship v. State" by Supreme Court of Georgia # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Blankenship v. State
- Author : Supreme Court of Georgia
- Release Date : January 08, 1983
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 54 KB
Description
This is the second appearance of this death penalty case. In its first appearance, the defendant's convictions for the offenses of murder, rape and aggravated sodomy were affirmed. The conviction for burglary was reversed because we found it to have merged with the felony murder conviction. Because of error under Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510 (88 S. Ct. 1770, 20 L. Ed. 2d 776) (1968), the death penalty was set aside and the case remanded for retrial on the issue of sentence. Blankenship v. State, 247 Ga. 590 (277 S.E.2d 505) (1981). On retrial, the defendant was again sentenced to death. The case is here on direct appeal and for mandatory review of the sentence. The issue here is the scope of evidence admissible in mitigation and whether the limitations imposed on Blankenship were permissible. We find he was impermissibly restricted; therefore, we reverse. Evidence presented at the original trial was summarized in our prior opinion. Briefly, it showed that the victim, a seventy-eight-year-old woman in ill health, was raped and beaten by an intruder and subsequently died from heart failure brought on by the trauma. In our review of the evidence, we noted the unexplained presence of blood, which was neither the victim's nor the defendant's, in the fingernail scrapings taken from the victim's left hand. We noted also that a segment of Negroid hair was discovered in combings taken from the victim's pubic hair, for the presence of which a plausible, though not conclusive, explanation was offered by the state. We concluded, from our review of the evidence, including footprint and fingerprint evidence and the defendant's confession, that the evidence was sufficient to support the convictions. However, in our review of the evidence, it was not necessary to determine, nor did we, that the evidence left no doubt as to the possible involvement of a third party.
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