Mark Wright v. State

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: May 21, 2019
• Docket: A19D0465
• Status: Published

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ May 16, 2019

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A19D0465. MARK WRIGHT v. THE STATE.

Following a jury trial, Mark Wright was convicted of malice murder, felony murder, and aggravated assault. The trial court sentenced Wright to life in prison for malice murder and merged the remaining counts of the indictment with the malice murder count. The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed his convictions following the trial court’s denial of his motion for new trial. See Wright v. State, 275 Ga. 427 (569 SE2d 537) (2002), overruled in part by Wilson v. State, 277 Ga. 195 (586 SE2d 669) (2003).1 In March 2018, Wright filed a motion for an out-of-time appeal, seeking an opportunity to raise ineffectiveness-of-counsel claims. The trial court denied the motion, and this application for discretionary appeal followed. Under our Constitution, the Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction over “[a]ll cases in which a sentence of death was imposed or could be imposed.” Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. VI, Sec. VI, Par. III (8). Because a penalty of death may be imposed for the crime of malice murder, jurisdiction over this application appears to be proper in the Supreme Court. See OCGA § 16-5-1 (a), (e) (1); Neal v. State, 290 Ga. 563, 572 (722 SE2d 765) (2012) (Hunstein, C. J., concurring); see also State v. Thornton, 253 Ga. 524, 524 (1) (322 SE2d 711) (1984) (directing this Court to transfer “all cases in which either a sentence of death or of life imprisonment has been

1 In Wilson, the Supreme Court clarified that failure to request an evidentiary hearing in support of a claim of ineffectiveness of trial counsel raised in a motion for new trial results only in a waiver of the right to such a hearing, but not in a waiver of appellate consideration of the claim. 277 Ga. at 198-199 (2). imposed upon conviction of murder”); accord Saxton v. Coastal Dialysis & Med. Clinic, Inc., 267 Ga. 177, 178 (476 SE2d 587) (1996) (the Supreme Court has the ultimate responsibility for determining appellate jurisdiction). Accordingly, Wright’s application is hereby TRANSFERRED to the Supreme Court for disposition.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 05/16/2019 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.