A federal judge in Atlanta has issued a blistering order threatening to go forward with a habeas corpus petition from a state inmate unable to appeal his life sentence because a posttrial motion has languished for 14 years in Fulton County Superior Court. 

In an an order handed down Wednesday, U.S. District Senior Judge Charles Pannell said defendant Mannoleto Patrick's desire to appeal his 2006 robbery and carjacking convictions has been stymied by "an incomplete [trial] transcript, a merry-go-round of appointed lawyers, and no viable explanation for the continuing lack of action."

Pannell also said Patrick's motion for a new trial has grown stale, even though Georgia's appellate courts have made clear they do not condone inordinate delays in addressing postconviction, pre-appeal motions that can strip defendants of their constitutional rights.

Moreover, Patrick's case was omitted from "a staggering 584 cases" that Fulton County Superior Court identified in January 2019 as having post-conviction motions that were still awaiting resolution, Pannell said. That number had dropped to 454 cases by last July—a number the senior judge still branded as "unacceptably high."

In January, Fulton County Superior Court still had 376 cases with pending postconviction motions, Pannell said. "Incredibly, 75% of this total have been awaiting judgment or transmission on appeal for at least two years."

Because Patrick's case was not included on those lists, Pannell said he "is left to conclude that the true number of convicted felons who are prevented from pursuing their direct appeal rights is even higher."

Pannell also made short shrift of arguments by state Attorney General Chris Carr's staff lawyers, who contended that proceedings to address Patrick's posttrial motion "are now underway" and "there is no need for this court to interfere." Pannell said that's the same argument the state has made since last May, yet Patrick's case "stands procedurally where it did in October 2006."

A Carr spokeswoman said, "Our office's role is not to defend the actions of Fulton County. Our office has been working diligently to move this matter along and will continue to do so to ensure that justice is done."

Pannell also criticized Fulton County Superior Court Judge Craig Schwall's "expansive schedule" for resolving Patrick's 14-year-old motion that would not result in a hearing until April 2021. Pannell said that schedule hasn't even been docketed.

Schwall was assigned the case after trial judge Bensonetta Tipton Lane retired in 2016.

Pannell also directed Carr's staff to ensure Patrick's motion for a new trial is adjudicated no later than Oct. 1 and urged Schwall to appoint additional counsel to assist Michael Tarleton of the Office of the Appellate Defender, who was appointed to represent Patrick in 2018.

Pannell also suggested that the Fulton County court may have violated a new rule adopted by the Supreme Court of Georgia last year after a finding that too many parties in the state's criminal justice system were not paying sufficient attention to excessive posttrial delays in criminal matters. Pannell said that, since that rule took effect 15 months ago, Schwall has held a single scheduling conference in Patrick's case, "coincidentally two hours after this court issued an order setting a hearing in this matter."

Pannell also noted that, despite a requirement that the Georgia Supreme Court be informed of all felony cases where judgment remains pending on motions for new trials or awaiting transmissions of a record on appeal, Patrick's case was not included in three consecutive reports to the high court. Pannell said he is sending a courtesy copy of his order to state Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Melton to let him know of the omission.

Pannell acknowledged in his order that there is a high bar before a federal trial judge can tackle inmate habeas cases before the defendants have exhausted their state appeals. He said that is particularly true in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which has been willing to tolerate delays based on defects in the state criminal justice system, even when they result in the denial of due process for as long as eight years.

But Pannell held that Patrick's case is one of those "rare instances" where the delays "are far beyond those tolerated by other courts in this circuit in prior cases."

Pannell said the fault for the "egregious delay" in addressing Patrick's posttrial motion "appears to be spread among many actors." His order called out Lane, Schwall and two court-appointed lawyers—one of whom ignored the case for three years until Patrick filed a bar complaint. The judge also was critical of Fulton court procedures that prevent Patrick's current counsel from getting a full trial transcript, except from Lane's retired court reporter, for whom the county refused to provide contact information.

"This court is left to wonder: Why is the transcript that was filed with the court incomplete?" Pannell wrote. "Why did Judge Lane allow a pending motion for new trial to sit unaddressed for nearly 10 years until her retirement? What caused the confusion as to what judge was assigned to the case after Judge Lane retired? Why has the delay persisted even after the Georgia Attorney General's Office was made aware of the issue through the filing of the federal petition nearly a year ago?"