Case v. State

The habeas court incorrectly concluded that an affidavit showing a party's lack of notice of the final hearing cannot constitute grounds for setting the final habeas order aside and, therefore, did not properly consider all of the relevant circumstances in reaching its decision to deny petitioner's motion to set aside the court's order on his petition for habeas corpus relief.

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On April 26, 2011, Charles Carlton Case entered a negotiated guilty plea to aggravated assault and simple battery against his niece to resolve an original charge of child molestation. He did not appeal. After being directed to register as a sex offender, on November 6, 2014, aided by new counsel, Case filed a habeas petition alleging that his guilty plea was not knowingly and voluntarily entered and that his plea counsel provided ineffective assistance. On January 12, 2015, the habeas court entered an order scheduling a final hearing, which was set for February 24, 2015. However, after neither Case nor his counsel appeared at the final hearing, the habeas court entered an order on February 27, 2015 dismissing the petition for want of prosecution and, in the alternative, denying the petition on the merits. On March 27, 2015, Case filed a motion to set aside, asserting that his habeas counsel had not received notice of the final habeas hearing and first became aware of the hearing on March 2, 2015, when counsel received the final order denying habeas relief. The habeas court denied the motion to set aside on May 7, 2015, and Case filed an application for discretionary appeal pursuant to OCGA § 5-6-35 a 8,1 without filing a notice of appeal. Case did not follow the required procedures for petitioners to appeal adverse final orders in habeas cases under OCGA § 9 14 52. See OCGA §§ 9 14 52 a Appeals in habeas corpus cases brought under this article shall be governed by Chapter 6 of Title 5 except that as to final orders of the court which are adverse to the petitioner no appeal shall be allowed unless the Supreme Court of this state issues a certificate of probable cause for the appeal and b requiring the filing within 30 days of both an application for a certificate of probable cause in this Court and a notice of appeal in the habeas court.

This Court granted Case’s application to appeal to resolve the following questions:

Case v. State

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