GA: No IAC to not object to reference to SW as somehow lowering burden of proof at trial

It was not ineffective assistance of counsel to not object to a police reference to having obtained a search warrant as somehow lowering the state’s burden of proof on guilt in the trial. Franklin v. State, 2019 Ga. App. LEXIS 431 (July 1, 2019):

Franklin argues that her trial counsel was ineffective in failing either to object to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent’s testimony that she obtained a search warrant for Franklin’s property based on information obtained from A. F. or to request a jury charge explaining the lower standard of proof required to obtain a search warrant. She asserts that, as a result, “the jury was left to assume that because there was enough evidence to obtain a search warrant, there must be enough evidence already to say that [she] is guilty.”

To show this constituted deficient performance, Franklin must show that no reasonable attorney would have allowed such testimony to go unchallenged or without a request for a clarifying jury charge. See Kennedy v. State, 304 Ga. 285, 289 (2) (818 SE2d 581) (2018). She has not met this burden; in fact, she offers no authority in support of this proposition. We find no error in the trial court’s determination that Franklin failed to show deficient performance.