Dixon v. State

Following a December 2005 jury trial, James Dixon was convicted of malice murder and other offenses in connection with the July 2004 beating and stabbing death of John Michael Carter. This Court upheld Dixon’s convictions on appeal. Dixon v. State, 285 Ga. 312 677 SE2d 76 2009. On February 23, 2011, Dixon filed a pro se “Motion in Arrest of Judgment” in the Cobb County Superior Court. The trial court denied and dismissed this Motion on February 28, 2011. Dixon filed an Application for Discretionary Appeal in this Court to appeal from the trial court’s ruling, and this Court granted the application on April 21, 2011, requesting that the parties address the following issues: 1 Whether a defendant has a right to a direct appeal from an untimely filed motion in arrest of judgment. See OCGA § 17-9-61 b; and 2 Whether the trial court properly “denied and dismissed” Dixon’s motion in arrest of judgment.1 For the reasons, that follow, we conclude that Dixon did have the right to a direct appeal and that the trial court properly dismissed Dixon’s motion. Accordingly, we affirm.

1. As the State correctly concedes, since the time that this Court directed the parties to address whether the ruling on Dixon’s untimely motion in arrest of judgment was directly appealable, this Court has held that