Conviction overturned in Zachary Higgins rape case

• Zachary Higgins

The Georgia Court of Appeals decided on July 5 to reverse rape and aggravated sodomy convictions against Zachary Higgins, subject of a 2009 CL cover story.

In 2008, Higgins was found guilty in Fayette County Court of raping a former co-worker several years earlier. According to the victim, Higgins, with whom she worked at a local pizza parlor, came to her house one night in 2005. The two watched television, started kissing and then — so she'd later tell police — Higgins forced himself on her.

Despite the fact that several witnesses testified that the alleged victim had talked about her encounter with Higgins as though it was consensual on several occasions (one witnesses agreed that the victim had bragged about it), Higgins was found guilty and sentenced to 35 years in prison.

What attorneys believe destroyed Higgins' defense was that jurors were permitted to hear evidence that Higgins was convicted of child molestation in juvenile court when he was 14 years old. The Court of Appeals reversed his conviction based on the fact that his defense attorney failed to object to the State's submission of that evidence.

According to attorney Charles Lea (who is currently representing Higgins, but wasn't at the time of his trial), the real problem wasn't Higgins' defense counsel, but rather the way in which evidence is permitted to be used to prove a so-called "similar transaction." Basically, the law says that similar criminal convictions cannot be used to prove that if a defendant committed a crime once, they'd do it again, but can be used to demonstrate a defendant's "bent of mind."