Home/Supreme Court of Georgia/Downs v. State

Downs v. State

509 S.E.2d 40, 270 Ga. 310
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedDecember 4, 1998
DocketS98A1631
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 509 S.E.2d 40 (Downs v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Downs v. State, 509 S.E.2d 40, 270 Ga. 310 (Ga. 1998).

Opinion

Hines, Justice.

Downs pled guilty to malice murder on January 4, 1995. On May 4, 1998, seven terms of court later, he filed a document styled: “Petitioner Notice of Filing Motion for New Trial on Newly Discovered Evidence.” The superior court treated this pleading as a motion to withdraw the guilty plea and dismissed it for lack of jurisdiction because it was out of term. Downs appeals and we affirm.

Downs contends the court should not have treated his pleading as a motion to withdraw a guilty plea but as an extraordinary motion for new trial. One who has entered a plea of guilty cannot move for a new trial, as there was no trial. Lamons v. State, 170 Ga. App. 745 (318 SE2d 509) (1984). Thus, even had the court treated the pleading as Downs suggests, the motion was correctly dismissed. There was no error in treating the pleading’s substance as a motion to withdraw a guilty plea. See Stevens v. State, 169 Ga. App. 646 (314 SE2d 481) (1984).

So treated, the court correctly dismissed the motion. The court’s jurisdiction to consider a motion to withdraw a guilty plea ended with the September 1994 term of court in which the judgment of conviction was rendered, and without jurisdiction the motion must be dismissed. Foskey v. State, 232 Ga. App. 303, 304 (501 SE2d 856) (1998). “[I]t is well established that after the expiration of the term and of the time for filing an appeal from the conviction, the only remedy available to the defendant for withdrawing a plea is through habeas corpus proceedings.” (Punctuation omitted.) Id. at 303.

Judgment affirmed.

All the Justices concur. *311 Harry N. Gordon, District Attorney, Gerald W Brown, Assistant District Attorney, for appellee.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Valerie Arroyo v. Joseph Colbert Jr.
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2017
Eric Wedlowe v. Cotton State Mortgage, Inc.
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2016
Allen Alphonzo Adams v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2014
Foster v. State
754 S.E.2d 78 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2014)
Rhone v. State
712 S.E.2d 601 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2011)
Nguyen v. State
621 S.E.2d 463 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2005)
Golden v. State
615 S.E.2d 769 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2005)
Clark v. State
613 S.E.2d 1 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2005)
Harris v. State
606 S.E.2d 248 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2004)
White v. State
602 S.E.2d 594 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2004)
Reese v. State
603 S.E.2d 685 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2004)
Martin v. State
596 S.E.2d 705 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2004)
Cook v. State
585 S.E.2d 743 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2003)
State v. Turco
108 S.W.3d 244 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 2003)
Hill v. State
570 S.E.2d 395 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2002)
Davis v. State
561 S.E.2d 119 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2002)
Thompson v. State
559 S.E.2d 730 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2002)
Farist v. State
547 S.E.2d 618 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2001)
Fox v. State
527 S.E.2d 216 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1999)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
509 S.E.2d 40, 270 Ga. 310, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/downs-v-state-ga-1998.