Earlier this month I posed an odd question: Is a lawn mower a vehicle. As you may recall, the Georgia Supreme Court was forced to face this question because someone had been sentenced to a long prison term for stealing a lawn mower. The prison term was only possible because the law makes a distinction between stealing motor vehicles and simple garden tools. Thus, if a riding lawn mower is considered to be equivalent to, say, a car, the longer prison term was justified. However, if the riding mower is nothing more than a garden tool, the longer prison term could not be justified. A few days ago, the Georgia Supreme Court finally cut through this legal Gordian knot. The Associated Press reports:A riding lawn mower may have four wheels, a powerful engine and can cost as much as a used car. If it's stolen, however, the Georgia Supreme Court concluded Monday that it's not a motor vehicle.This is clearly not an easy call, as the 4-3 split indicates. The case can be found here. It is an interesting read.The 4-3 decision overturned the conviction of Franklin Lloyd Harris, who was convicted of felony motor vehicle theft after he loaded a Toro riding mower in 2006 from a Home Depot in Dalton into his van and sped away. Because Harris was a repeat offender, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
