State v. Burns

Benham, Justice.

*370In Smith v. State , 259 Ga. 135 (1), 377 S.E.2d 158 (1989), this Court held that, once certain procedural requirements are satisfied, a defendant in a sexual-offense prosecution may adduce evidence at trial that the complaining witness has made prior false accusations of sexual misconduct and, further, that such evidence is admissible both to attack the credibility of the victim and as substantive evidence tending to prove that the conduct underlying the charges did not occur. In its decision below, the Court of Appeals followed Smith to reverse the trial court, which had…