Sosniak v. State

734 S.E.2d 362, 292 Ga. 35, 2012 Fulton County D. Rep. 3646, 2012 Ga. LEXIS 945
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedNovember 19, 2012
DocketS12A0799
StatusPublished
Cited by76 cases

This text of 734 S.E.2d 362 (Sosniak 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
Sosniak v. State, 734 S.E.2d 362, 292 Ga. 35, 2012 Fulton County D. Rep. 3646, 2012 Ga. LEXIS 945 (Ga. 2012).

Opinions

Melton, Justice.

Marcin Waldemar Sosniak appeals the trial court’s denial of his motion to dismiss his indictment due to an alleged constitutional speedy trial violation. Because we find that Callaway v. State, 275 Ga. 332 (567 SE2d 13) (2002), and Boseman v. State, 263 Ga. 730, n. 1 (438 SE2d 626) (1994), wrongly decided that the denial of a pre-trial constitutional speedy trial claim may be directly appealed, we dismiss Sosniak’s appeal for failure to follow the interlocutory appeal procedures of OCGA § 5-6-34 (b).

1. The record shows that Sosniak was arrested on March 20,2006 for murder,* 1 and, with his co-defendants, Jason McGhee and Frank Ortegon, was indicted on September 10,2007. On October 5,2007, the [36]*36State filed notice of its intent to seek the death penalty against all three defendants, and, after the completion of pre-trial proceedings, the trial court issued a pre-trial report and order for review on September 3, 2009. Thereafter, this Court granted Sosniak’s Application for Interim Review, and affirmed the rulings of the trial court. Sosniak v. State, 287 Ga. 279 (695 SE2d 604) (2010). Sosniak’s trial was then scheduled for January 10, 2011, but the trial court continued the case until July 11, 2011 at Sosniak’s request. On July 1, 2011, Sosniak filed another motion for continuance, which the trial court granted and continued the case until October 10, 2011. Sosniak filed another motion for continuance on October 5, 2011. The court denied the motion on October 6, 2011. Sosniak then filed a motion to dismiss alleging a constitutional speedy trial violation on October 7, 2011, which the trial court denied on October 28, 2011.

2. OCGA § 5-6-34 (a) (1) authorizes direct appeals only from “final judgments [of the trial court], that is to say, where the case is no longer pending in the court below.”2 Because “ ‘the only possible remedy’ ” for a constitutional speedy trial violation is dismissal of the indictment with prejudice, Strunk v. United States, 412 U. S. 434, 440 (93 SC 2260, 37 LE2d 56) (1973) (quoting Barker v. Wingo, 407 U. S. [37]*37514, 522 (92 SC 2182, 33 LE2d 101) (1972)), when a trial court grants a constitutional speedy trial motion, it must dismiss the case, and that ruling is clearly a final judgment that the State may directly appeal. See also OCGA § 5-7-1 (a) (1) (authorizing the State to appeal orders dismissing an indictment). However, when the trial court denies a speedy trial motion, the case remains “pending in the court below” and continues on to trial. OCGA § 5-6-34 (a) (2) through (12) authorize direct appeals of 11 specific types of trial court rulings that the General Assembly has deemed important enough to the case, or dispositive enough of the case, to warrant an immediate appeal, even though such rulings are often interlocutory rather than final judgments. But orders related to speedy trial rights, statutory or constitutional, are not listed. The usual remedy for a party aggrieved by an order that does not terminate the case in the trial court, and is not authorized for direct appeal by OCGA § 5-6-34 (a) (2)-(12), is to seek a certificate of immediate review from the trial court and then file an application for interlocutory appeal.

Sosniak’s direct appeal rests instead on application of the so-called “collateral order” doctrine. This doctrine was originally developed by the United States Supreme Court as an interpretation of28USC§ 1291, the federal statute that, much like OCGA § 5-6-34 (a) (1), authorizes direct appeals in federal cases only “from all final decisions of the district courts.” See also 28 USC § 1292 (authorizing appeals from specified interlocutory orders in subsection (a), like OCGA § 5-6-34 (a) (2)-(12), and authorizing other interlocutory appeals at the discretion of both the trial and appellate courts, like OCGA § 5-6-34 (b)).

In 1977, in Abney v. United States, 431 U. S. 651, 653 (97 SC 2034, 52 LE2d 651) (1977), the Supreme Court held that the collateral order doctrine authorized the pretrial appeal of an order denying a motion to dismiss an indictment on double jeopardy grounds. Less than a year later, in United States v. MacDonald, 435 U. S. 850 (98 SC 1547, 56 LE2d 18) (1978), the Supreme Court, in what it called a “straightforward” application of the collateral order doctrine, unanimously rejected the contention that a defendant is entitled to a pretrial appeal of an order denying a motion to dismiss an indictment based on the alleged violation of his constitutional right to a speedy trial. Id. at 856.

The Court first recognized that, “[i]n sharp distinction to a denial of a motion to dismiss on double jeopardy grounds, a denial of a motion to dismiss on speedy trial grounds does not represent ‘a complete, formal and, in the trial court, a final rejection’ of the defendant’s claim.” Id. at 858 (quoting Abney, 431 U. S. at 659). Looking to the factors that courts must weigh in deciding a speedy [38]*38trial claim, particularly the issue of prejudice to the accused, see Barker v. Wingo, 407 U. S. at 530-532, the Court explained:

Before trial, of course, an estimate of the degree to which delay has impaired an adequate defense tends to be speculative. The denial of a pretrial motion to dismiss an indictment on speedy trial grounds does not indicate that a like motion made after trial — when prejudice can be better gauged — would also be denied. Hence, pretrial denial of a speedy trial claim can never be considered a complete, formal, and final rejection by the trial court of the defendant’s contention; rather, the question at stake in the motion to dismiss necessarily “remains open, unfinished [and] inconclusive” until the trial court has pronounced judgment.

MacDonald, 435 U. S. at 858-859 (citation omitted).

With respect to “the requirement that the order sought to be appealed be ‘collateral to, and separable from, the principal issue at the accused’s impending criminal trial, i.e., whether or not the accused is guilty of the offense charged,’ ” MacDonald, 435 U. S. at 859 (quoting Abney, 431 U. S. at 659), the Court noted that, in contrast to a double jeopardy claim, “there exists no such divorce between the question of prejudice to the conduct of the defense (which so often is central to an assessment of a speedy trial claim) and the events at trial. Quite the contrary, in the usual case, they are intertwined,” id. The Court added:

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

Related

Nelson v. State
915 S.E.2d 541 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2025)
Stefon Smith v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2024
Mary Murray v. John Lowe
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2024
Selworth Smith v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2024
John Robinson v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2024
Matthew D. McMaster v. John Lowe
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2024
Rucker v. State
883 S.E.2d 790 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2023)
Shantricia Robinson v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2022
BUCKNER-WEBB v. State
878 S.E.2d 481 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2022)
State v. Logan Adam Bowman
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2021
John Peter Kishel v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2020
Roberts v. State
847 S.E.2d 541 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2020)
Burney v. State
845 S.E.2d 625 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2020)
Rebekah Morris v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2020
Nakia Dorsey v. State
Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2019
Willis v. State
304 Ga. 686 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2018)
IN THE INTEREST OF K.S., a Child
303 Ga. 542 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2018)
In re Interest of K.S.
814 S.E.2d 324 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2018)
Jones v. Peach Trader Inc.
807 S.E.2d 840 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 2017)
Leslie v. State
Supreme Court of Georgia, 2017

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
734 S.E.2d 362, 292 Ga. 35, 2012 Fulton County D. Rep. 3646, 2012 Ga. LEXIS 945, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sosniak-v-state-ga-2012.