On October 28, 2002, Brandon Cooper pled guilty to armed robbery and aggravated assault, and on that same day was sentenced to two terms of ten years in prison, to be served concurrently. Subsequently, he filed a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus, which was received by the Superior Court of Washington County on July 2, 2008. Warden Stephen Roberts answered the petition and filed a motion to dismiss it as untimely under OCGA § 9-14-42 c 1, as the petition was not filed on or before July 1, 2008, as this Code provision requires. The habeas court denied the motion, declaring that the “mailbox rule” set out in Massaline v. Williams , 274 Ga. 552 554 SE2d 720 2001, applied to Cooper’s petition, and it would thus be deemed filed when he properly delivered it to prison officials; the habeas court found that Cooper did so on June 27, 2008, before the statutory deadline of July 1, 2008. Roberts secured a certificate of immediate review from the habeas court and applied to this Court for interlocutory appeal. We granted the application to address whether the habeas court erred in applying the mailbox rule to an initial petition in the habeas court. Finding that Massaline applies only to the situation addressed therein, we reverse. Under OCGA § 9-14-521, if a person being restrained by virtue of a sentence of a state court of record petitions for a writ of habeas corpus, is unsuccessful, and wishes to appeal, “he must file a written application for a certificate of probable cause to appeal with the clerk of the Supreme Court within 30 days from the entry of the order denying him relief”; he must “also file within the same period a notice of appeal with the clerk of the concerned superior court.” OCGA § 9-14-52 b. In Massaline , this Court announced a rule of appellate procedure by which, when such a petitioner is proceeding pro se, “his application for certificate of probable cause to appeal and notice of appeal will be deemed filed on the date he delivers them to the prison authorities for forwarding to the clerks of this Court and the superior court, respectively.” Massaline , supra at 555 3 a.
After our 2001 decision in Massaline , the General Assembly, in 2004, amended OCGA § 9-14-42 to add subsection c, which provides for a period of limitation in which a petitioner must file his initial petition for habeas relief. Under OCGA § 9-14-42 c 1, one who, like Cooper, was convicted of a felony before July 1, 2004, is required to file his petition for a writ of habeas corpus on or before July 1, 2008, absent exceptions not relevant here.2 In deciding that Massaline’s mailbox rule applied to OCGA § 9-14-42, the habeas court determined that the mailbox rule was to be applied to any pleading regarding habeas corpus. However, this is incorrect.
