Howard v. State

I dissent to Division 6 of the majority opinion. Defendant complains that the judge erred in failing to conduct a pre-sentence hearing as required by Code Ann. § 27-2503. In the present case, after receiving the verdict of guilt, the trial judge stated to defense counsel, “It will be necessary for me to get a pre-sentence on this defendant unless you want to waive a pre-sentence investigation, Mr. Williams, if you want to I will be back up here next week.” The defense attorney stated, “I’d like to speak to my client before I waive it.” The record of the proceedings ended without any…