An east Georgia man’s murder conviction has been overturned by Georgia’s Supreme Court, citing a procedural issue during his trial.
Sherman Lamont Allen, of Elbert County, was originally convicted of malice murder for the death of Treston Smith in 2017. According to court records, Smith’s death followed a fight between himself and Allen over an affair Smith had with Allen’s old romantic partner.
Allen was tried and convicted by a jury in March 2019, but appealed the verdict based on the way the jury was charged in the case.
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The Georgia Supreme Court said state law requires that a question asked at the murder trial “is whether a killing immediately after serious provocation should be punished as voluntary manslaughter rather than murder.”
For Allen’s case, the court said: “If there is any evidence of such serious provocation, it is for the jury, and not a judge, to decide whether the provocation was sufficient to mitigate the guilt. This is one such case.”
Allen appealed his conviction for malice murder solely on the grounds that the trial court failed to direct the jury to consider the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter.
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The court found that the state “failed to meet the burden of demonstrating a substantial likelihood that the error did not contribute to the verdict,” and as a result, the state’s highest court ruled that they should vacate the conviction van Allen had to turn back.
In this case, the court said that Georgia “has long recognized in case law that discovery of a partner’s infidelity is generally sufficient provocation to justify a charge of voluntary manslaughter,” and said the denial of the court to grant the lesser charge was an option because Allen’s claim of self-defense was false.
As a result of the error, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the malice murder conviction was overturned, but additional counts of murder, aggravated battery, and aggravated assault were also affected and their sentences could not stand.
“On remand, the State may retry Allen for malice murder and felony murder as the evidence was sufficient as a matter of constitutional due process to support a conviction on these counts.”
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