Glover v. State

── Glover v. State ── Court: Supreme Court of Georgia Date: June 02, 2026 Category: General NOTICE: This opinion is subject to modification resulting from motions for reconsideration under Supreme Court Rule 27, the Court’s reconsideration, and editorial revisions by the Reporter of Decisions. The version of the opinion published in the Advance Sheets for the Georgia Reports, designated as the “Final Copy,” will replace any prior version on the Court’s website and docket. A bound volume of the Georgia Reports will contain the final and official text of the opinion. In the Supreme Court of Georgia No. S26A0418 Albert Glover v. The State On Appeal from the Superior Court of Baldwin County No. 2020SUCR53656 Decided: June 2, 2026 BETHEL, Justice. Albert Glover was convicted of the malice murder of Michael Dawson, his cellmate at Baldwin State Prison. 1 Glover appeals, arguing that the evidence was not sufficient to support his conviction, that the trial court committed two evidentiary errors, that the State violated its obligation to disclose a witness’s pecuniary interest in testifying, and that trial counsel was ineffective. Glover also makes a cumulative error argument. For the reasons that follow, these claims fail, so we affirm. 1 The crimes occurred on December 25, 2019. In November 2020, a Baldwin County grand jury indicted Glover for malice murder, felony murder predicated on aggravated assault, and aggravated assault. At a June 2022 trial, a jury found Glover guilty of all counts. The trial court sentenced Glover to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole for malice murder; the other counts merged or were vacated by operation of law. Glover filed a timely motion for new trial, which he subsequently amended through new counsel. Following an evidentiary hearing, the trial court entered an order denying Glover’s motion for new trial, as amended, on September 9, 2025. Glover filed a timely notice of appeal, and his appeal was docketed to this Court’s term beginning in December 2025 and submitted for a decision on the briefs.  1. Glover first argues that the evidence at trial was not sufficient to support his conviction as a matter of constitutional due process because, he says, the State failed to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt his claim of self-defense. We disagree. The evidence at trial showed the following. Shortly after breakfast on the morning of December 25, 2019, Glover alerted corrections officers that Dawson was “unresponsive” in the cell the two men shared. 2 Upon entering the cell, officers found the deceased Dawson face down in the bed with the bedsheets pulled up to his neck and a cap over his head. “[R]ed strangulation marks” were visible on Dawson’s neck. Following an autopsy, the medical examiner concluded that Dawson was first manually strangled and then strangled with a ligature and opined that, due to the manner in which pressure was applied, Dawson was face down at the time of death, and “it took a while for [him] to die[.]” Dawson’s body also showed signs that he struggled during the strangulation, including a laceration on his forehead and 2 The record reflects that, at the time of the crimes, Glover was serving a 20-year sentence for a 2004 conviction for arson. Dawson was serving a sentence of life in prison for a 2007 conviction for the malice murder of another inmate while he was incarcerated at Coastal State Pri