MACON COUNTY, Ga. — Georgia’s Supreme Court today upheld the murder conviction in the Macon County case from 2009.
Ricardo Sturkey was convicted of malice murder and several other charges for killing Albert White.
Prosecutors say he was living in White’s home when he robbed him, shot him and hid his body for two days.
They say DNA evidence on a bloody shirt and a gun found in a neighbor’s yard proved Sturkey was the killer.
His appeal claimed several errors from his 2010 trial. His new lawyers say the judge’s questions for a witness implied Sturkey was guilty and that his trial lawyer was ineffective.
The state’s highest court rejected those arguments and said the evidence against him is overwhelming.
Sturkey is serving a life sentence at Calhoun State Prison. The ruling also notes that it took years to transmit Sturkey’s appeal from the local court to the state’s highest court.
They called that the latest in a string of “lengthy, unexplained and unjustified delays” that put some recent cases on hold for a decade or more.
The Supreme Court says they asked Georgia’s superior-court system six years ago to draw up rules to prevent post-conviction delays.
But they say cases like Sturkey’s “continue languishing in post-conviction limbo.”
The judges wrote, “These extended and unjustified delays in resolving criminal cases make our state’s criminal-justice system appear unfair and grossly inefficient.”