Reginald Carswell v. State

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: March 21, 2019
• Docket: A19D0348
• Status: Published

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ March 11, 2019

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A19D0348. REGINALD CARSWELL v. THE STATE.

On February 9, 2019, Reginald Carswell filed a pro se “Notice of Appeal” in this Court, seeking to appeal his judgment of conviction and sentence. We docketed the filing as an application for discretionary appeal. Pursuant to OCGA § 5-6-34 (a) (1), a defendant has a right to directly appeal a “final judgment, that is to say, where the case is no longer pending in the court below.” Keller v. State, 275 Ga. 680, 680 (571 SE2d 806) (2002) (punctuation omitted). Ordinarily, we will grant a timely application for discretionary appeal if the lower court’s order is subject to direct appeal. See OCGA § 5-6-35 (j). Although Carswell included a copy of a single page from his judgment of conviction, he did not include a stamped “filed” copy of the entire order.1 Without the stamped “filed” copy of the order, this Court cannot ascertain if the application was filed within 30 days, which is a jurisdictional requirement. See OCGA § 5-6-35 (d); Boyle v. State, 190 Ga. App. 734, 734 (380 SE2d 57) (1989). Consequently, on February 19, 2019, this Court ordered Carswell to supplement his application within ten days with a stamped “filed” copy of the order to be appealed. This Court cautioned Carswell that failure to comply with this directive would result in dismissal of the application. Carswell has not submitted a stamped “filed” copy of the order, and more than ten days have passed since the February 19, 2019 order.

1 Although the single page Carswell included with the application does not contain a stamped “filed” date, it was signed by the trial judge on June 19, 2018. Based on that date, the application is untimely. Accordingly, Carswell’s application for discretionary appeal is hereby DISMISSED.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 03/11/2019 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.