The Georgia

Supreme Court has reversed a ruling from the Georgia Court of Appeals

regarding a man convicted for armed robbery in Fayette Superior Court

in 1997.

The Supreme

Court ruled that Superior Court Judge Johnnie Caldwell should not have

sentenced Tommie Coleman Davis to life in prison without parole for the

armed robbery of a residence on Wagon Wheel Way in unincorporated Fayette

County. The ruling will eventually lead to a resentencing for Davis with

a maximum penalty of life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Georgia law

calls for persons committing a second "serious violent felony"

to be sentenced to life in prison without parole, as Davis was sentenced.

At the time,

Caldwell ruled that Davis was convicted in 1991 for armed robbery in DeKalb

County. He had pled guilty under the first offender act, however, meaning

that he could serve time on probation and the conviction would eventually

be wiped off his record.

The Supreme

Court pointed out that Davis' first offender status had not been revoked

when he was convicted of armed robbery in Fayette County. Thus, it was

not considered a "conviction."

"Revocation

of the first offender probation status is necessary to constitute a conviction

... and that did not occur here," the opinion said.

The recent

Supreme Court ruling will eventually require that Caldwell resentence

Davis to a regular life sentence or a shorter length of time, said Davis's

attorney Lloyd W. Walker.

Walker said

the court of appeals had upheld Caldwell's sentence, but the Supreme Court

justices thought differently.

First offender

status allows a person with a clean criminal record to be placed on probation

for certain types of crimes.

The Supreme

Court's opinion on the case was unanimous.

In 1997, Davis

was convicted by a jury of armed robbery and possession of a firearm during

the commission of a crime. According to police reports, Davis and two

others stole the van and several items from the residence on Wagon Wheel

Way and Davis had in his possession a .380 caliber handgun during the

offense, which witnesses testified that he pointed at the victims.