McElrath v. State

319 Ga. 539

FINAL COPY S22A0605. MCELRATH V. THE STATE. BETHEL, Justice. In 2017, a jury found Damian Cornell McElrath guilty but mentally ill of the felony murder of his adoptive mother, Diane. The same jury also found McElrath not guilty of the malice murder of Diane by reason of insanity. On appeal, we concluded that those two verdicts were repugnant. See McElrath v. State,

308 Ga. 104

( 839 SE2d 573) (2020) (“McElrath I”). We explained that, under this State’s repugnant-verdicts doctrine, verdicts are repugnant if they are not merely inconsistent but reflect two different affirmative…