Background: A sheriff’s deputy observes near the Fulton County Courthouse on Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alex Slitz) Inset: Darren Rayton Mills (Georgia Department of Corrections)
A Georgia man, serving time for attempted murder and other offenses, has secured a new trial due to a Fulton County jury member who failed to disclose a past conviction for cocaine possession.
The Georgia Court of Appeals unanimously ruled in favor of Darren Rayton Mills Jr.’s application for a new trial on Thursday. Judge Wade Padgett determined that the trial court “erred” by denying Mills’ motion for a new trial, highlighting that a juror with a felony conviction was involved in the deliberations and verdict, contravening the Georgia Constitution. Judges Sara Doyle and Todd Markle agreed with this assessment.
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The case stems from a 2015 robbery and shooting of a person referred to as H.P. in the filing. Mills and two co-defendants, Dominque Carter and Quatez White, were indicted the following year for criminal attempt to commit murder, two counts of participation in criminal street gang activity, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery, armed robbery, hijacking a motor vehicle, arson in the second degree, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Mills pleaded not guilty to all counts, and the case went to trial.
According to the appeals court’s ruling, during jury selection, the trial judge asked the group of prospective jurors: “[i]s there anyone on our panel who has been convicted of a felony and has not had their rights restored?”
No one is said to have responded, including a juror named in the ruling as “C.L.L.” The trial proceeded, and Mills was found guilty on all counts except for possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Mills requested a new trial, and upon learning of C.L.L.’s 1995 conviction of possession of cocaine — and subsequent first offender status revocation in 1997 after being found with cocaine while on probation — added in his motion that this juror’s presence “deprived him of a fair trial,” the court’s ruling noted.
The trial court denied Mills’ request, finding that C.L.L.’s crime was not “so recent or infamous to have infected the proceedings” and determining that Mills “offered no evidence demonstrating that his trial or its result was unfair,” Padgett recounted, noting Mills appealed that decision. The appeals court then cited Georgia law and precedent as to why it disagreed with the trial court.
“First, the plain language of [the First Offender Act] is unambiguous and encompassing in its reference to ‘a felony,’ without any distinction or subdividing between a felony that is ‘infamous’ and one that is ‘not infamous,”” Padgett wrote. “Second, as our Supreme Court has made clear, ‘it would seem that any crime designated as a felony and punishable by imprisonment would be a crime involving moral turpitude within the meaning of the law. Felonies are infamous.”
Mills is serving his roughly 30-year sentence in Calhoun State Prison.
