Grady Lavon Slade, Jr. v. State

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: April 11, 2023
• Docket: A23A1179
• Status: Published

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ April 11, 2023

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A23A1179. GRADY LAVON SLADE, JR. v. THE STATE.

In 2006, a jury convicted Grady Lavon Slade, Jr. of aggravated sodomy and other crimes, and this Court affirmed his convictions on appeal. See Slade v. State, 287 Ga. App. 34 (651 SE2d 352) (2007). In November 2021, Slade filed this appeal. We lack jurisdiction for two reasons. First, a notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days of entry of the order sought to be appealed. See OCGA § 5-6-38 (a). The proper and timely filing of a notice of appeal is an absolute requirement to confer jurisdiction on this Court. See Redford v. State, 357 Ga. App. 247, 250 (850 SE2d 447) (2020). Slade’s 2021 notice appeal, filed 15 years after his conviction, is untimely.1 Second, this Court has already affirmed Slade’s convictions, and he is bound by the judgment in that case. See Jackson v. State, 273 Ga. 320, 320 (540 SE2d 612) (2001) (a defendant “is not entitled to another bite at the apple by way of a second appeal”); Ross v. State, 310 Ga. App. 326, 327 (713 SE2d 438) (2011) (“[A]ny issue that was raised and resolved in an earlier appeal is the law of the case and is binding on this Court[.]”) (punctuation omitted); Jordan v. State, 253 Ga. App. 510, 511-512 (2) (559 SE2d 528) (2002) (“It is axiomatic that the same issue cannot be relitigated ad infinitum. The same is true of appeals of the same issue on the same grounds. Our

1 Slade purported to file a notice of an out-of-time appeal, but the Supreme Court of Georgia has held that there was and is “no legal authority for motions for out-of-time appeal in trial courts.” Cook v. State, 313 Ga. 471, 506 (5) (870 SE2d 758) (2022). determination in the earlier appeal is res judicata; the instant appeal is therefore barred, and we are without jurisdiction to review this same matter for a second time.”). For these reasons, this appeal is hereby DISMISSED.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 04/11/2023 I certify that the above is a true extract from the minutes of the Court of Appeals of Georgia. Witness my signature and the seal of said court hereto affixed the day and year last above written.

, Clerk.