The Supreme Court of Georgia has upheld a man's murder conviction and life prison sentence in the June 2013 shooting death of a man outside of Peppers Market in Gainesville.
The unanimous decision on Joseph Scott Williams' appeal was published by the court Monday morning.
After being denied a new trial in 2015, Williams appealed to the high court, arguing the trial court was in error by denying his motion to shuffle the jury pool.
He also claimed the trial court should not have excluded evidence related to his claim of self-defense and should not have denied his motion for a mistrial when the prosecution questioned him about allegations of jury tampering by a third party.
Additionally, Williams argued that his trial lawyer was ineffective and that the court erred by not charging the jury on involuntary manslaughter.
"We affirm because the court was not required to shuffle the jury pool, any error in excluding the evidence in support of Williams’s self-defense claim was harmless, the court’s instruction to the jury cured the prejudicial effect of any improper questioning, the evidence did not support a jury charge on involuntary manslaughter and Williams has failed to show that trial counsel was ineffective," the opinion authored by Justice Nels S.D. Peterson stated.
Williams, 32 at the time of the crime, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2014 for the murder of Adrian Thompson outside of the store on E.E. Butler Parkway.
Thompson was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center following the shooting. The incident happened at roughly 6:00 p.m. on a Monday. Thompson died later at the hospital.
