Opinion
A23A0405
12-12-2022
TED ANDREW JEFFERSON v. THE STATE.
The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:
In 2014, a jury found Ted Andrew Jefferson guilty of multiple crimes. He filed a direct appeal, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence and the admission of certain testimony, and contending that trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance. We affirmed the judgment. Case No. A20A0214 (decided Aug. 13, 2021).
In April 2022, Jefferson filed a pro se motion to vacate void judgment in which he contended the arrest underlying his conviction was unlawful and that, therefore, the judgment of conviction was void. The trial court denied the motion, and Jefferson filed this direct appeal. The State has filed a motion to dismiss the appeal.
A motion to vacate a judgment of conviction is not an appropriate remedy in a criminal case. See Harper v. State, 286 Ga. 216, 218 (1) (686 S.E.2d 786) (2009). Accordingly, any appeal from an order denying such a motion must be dismissed. See id. at 218 (2); Roberts v. State, 286 Ga. 532, 532 (690 S.E.2d 150) (2010). Moreover, "[a] defendant is not entitled to a second direct appeal from his judgment of conviction." Miller v. State, 264 Ga.App. 801, 803 (b) (592 S.E.2d 450) (2003) (punctuation omitted). Jefferson has already had a direct appeal from the judgment of conviction, which we affirmed. Thus, this appeal must be dismissed.
Accordingly, the motion to dismiss is granted, and this appeal is hereby DISMISSED.