Roger Smith, Jr. v. State of Georgia

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: August 4, 2023
• Docket: A23A1479
• Status: Published

Opinion

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ August 04, 2023

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:

A23A1479. ROGER SMITH, JR. v. STATE OF GEORGIA.

The Clerk of the Superior Court of Ware County filed in superior court a petition to reestablish lost or destroyed public records, seeking to reestablish the original indictment and executed jury verdict form in the criminal case against Roger Smith, Jr., because those documents were inadvertently lost or destroyed. See OCGA § 24-11-2 et seq. On March 7, 2023, the trial court entered an order stating that the copy of the indictment and verdict form attached to the petition were established as true and correct copies of those documents. On April 24, 2023, Smith filed a notice of appeal from that order. We, however, lack jurisdiction. A notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days of entry of the order sought to be appealed. OCGA § 5-6-38 (a). “The proper and timely filing of a notice of appeal is an absolute requirement to confer jurisdiction upon an appellate court.” Perlman v. Perlman, 318 Ga. App. 731, 739 (4) (734 SE2d 560) (2012) (punctuation omitted). Smith filed his notice of appeal 48 days after entry of the order he sought to appeal. Thus, the notice is untimely, and this appeal is hereby DISMISSED for lack of jurisdiction. Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 08/04/2023 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.