Drinkard v. Walker

Sears, Chief Justice.

Jerry Drinkard was convicted by an Elbert County jury in 1996 of rape, aggravated child molestation, statutory rape, and incest, based on a single encounter with the victim. His convictions were affirmed on appeal by unpublished opinion.

In 2004, Drinkard filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging that his counsel had been ineffective for failing to argue at trial and on appeal that his statutory rape and incest convictions should have merged into his rape conviction as a matter of fact. The habeas court denied Drinkard’s petition, but this Court granted his…