Grimes v. State

In Grimes v. State, 291 Ga. App. 585 (662 SE2d 346) (2008), the Court held that it "remains improper to allow a witness to testify as to the identity of a person in a video or photograph when such opinion evidence tends only to establish a fact which average jurors could decide thinking for themselves and drawing their own conclusions." Id at 590 (2). The Court therefore concluded that trial counsel's performance was deficient when he failed to object to a detective's testimony that "when I came into contact with the defendant, having already seen the FBI bulletin, it was apparent that this was the individual from those cases." Id. at 590 (2). Because the defendant's defense at trial was misidentification and the other evidence of identification was "not strong," we concluded that there was a reasonable probability that the outcome might have been different. Id. at 592-594.