Opinion
A22A1241
04-18-2022
DEMONTA PRICE v. THE STATE
The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:
In 2017, Demonta Price was convicted of felony murder and other crimes. Price filed a motion for new trial, which the trial court denied. Price then filed this appeal. He next filed a motion to transfer this appeal to the Supreme Court, explaining that he erroneously filed the appeal in this Court due to a clerical error. Price contends that the Supreme Court has jurisdiction over this case. We agree.
The Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction over “[a]ll cases in which a sentence of death was imposed or could be imposed.” Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. VI, Sec. VI, Par. III (8). Because a penalty of death may be imposed for the crime of murder, jurisdiction is proper in the Supreme Court. See OCGA § 16-5-1 (e) (1); Neal v. State, 290 Ga. 563, 572 (722 S.E.2d 765) (2012) (Hunstein, C. J., concurring); see also State v. Thornton, 253 Ga. 524, 524 (1) (322 S.E.2d 711) (1984) (directing this Court to transfer to the Supreme Court “all cases in which either a sentence of death or of life imprisonment has been imposed upon conviction of murder”), overruled in part on other grounds as recognized in Elliott v. State, 305 Ga. 179, 205 (III) (C) (i) (824 S.E.2d 265) (2019). Accordingly, the motion to transfer is GRANTED and this appeal is hereby TRANSFERRED to the Supreme Court.