Appellate wins are hard to come by. Last year, Leslie had the honor to work on an amicus “friend of the court” brief on behalf of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (GACDL) on an issue that comes up often in serious violent felony cases–bad prior acts character evidence.
On March 4, 2025, the Georgia Supreme Court reversed this defendant’s murder convictions, finding the trial court improperly admitted bad character “propensity” evidence.
Leslie’s brief shared with the Supreme Court of Georgia the position of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Appellate courts like the Supreme Court of Georgia use these types of briefs to help them understand how issues affect different people. In this brief, Leslie argued that this type of evidence is frequently misused to let in character evidence that would otherwise not be admitted in a trial. This was a significant win, giving courts better guidance for determining whether such evidence should be admitted in cases like this.
