Following a jury trial, Lorenzo Middlebrooks was convicted of aggravated assault. The trial court denied Middlebrooks’ motion for new trial, and he filed a notice of appeal with this Court on May 4, 1999. When Middlebrooks’ appellate counsel filed a motion to withdraw, we remanded the appeal to the trial court for appointment of new appellate counsel. Other than transferring the case between judges, the trial court failed to take any action on Middlebrooks’ case until August 2006, when the Office of the Public Defender was appointed to represent him in his appeal. Middlebrooks claims that his constitutional rights to due process were violated by the trial court’s delay in appointing new appellate counsel, that the state committed misconduct during its closing argument, and that both his trial and prior appellate counsel were ineffective. We discern no error and affirm. On appeal from a criminal conviction, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, and the defendant no longer enjoys the presumption of innocence.1 So viewed, the record shows that on December 28, 1996, Middlebrooks was at his mother’s home to pick up his children. Middlebrooks’ uncle and Harold Stafford arrived at the home, and Middlebrooks became angered by Stafford’s behavior toward his mother and wife. After knocking Stafford to the floor, Middlebrooks kicked and stomped on Stafford’s face and head, causing him serious injury. Following Middlebrooks’ conviction for aggravated assault, the trial court sentenced him as a recidivist to 20 years in prison.
1. Middlebrooks claims that his constitutional rights were violated by the lengthy delay in the appeals process. We have held that the procedures underlying the appellate process must “comport with the demands of the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Constitution,” and we apply the test adopted by the United States Supreme Court for constitutional speedy trial violations to situations in which a defendant claims that his rights to due process have been violated by a delay in the appellate process.2
