Rollf v. Carter

Blackwell, Justice.

When the statutory law establishes different punishments for the same offense, courts sometimes apply the rule of lenity to resolve the statutory ambiguity. Properly applied, the rule of lenity directs the courts to resolve such ambiguities in favor of a defendant, according the defendant the benefit of the doubt about what punishment the law authorizes in his case, and presuming that the law was meant only to permit the lesser punishment. See Banta v. State, 281 Ga. 615, 617 (2) (642 SE2d 51) (2007). Although the rule of lenity perhaps has been applied in Georgia most…