Opinion
A23A1179
04-11-2023
GRADY LAVON SLADE, JR. v. THE STATE.
The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:
In 2006, a jury convicted Grady Lavon Slade, Jr. of aggravated sodomy and other crimes, and this Court affirmed his convictions on appeal. See Slade v. State, 287 Ga.App. 34 (651 S.E.2d 352) (2007). In November 2021, Slade filed this appeal. We lack jurisdiction for two reasons.
First, a notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days of entry of the order sought to be appealed. See OCGA § 5-6-38 (a). The proper and timely filing of a notice of appeal is an absolute requirement to confer jurisdiction on this Court. See Redford v. State, 357 Ga.App. 247, 250 (850 S.E.2d 447) (2020). Slade's 2021 notice appeal, filed 15 years after his conviction, is untimely.
Slade purported to file a notice of an out-of-time appeal, but the Supreme Court of Georgia has held that there was and is "no legal authority for motions for out-of-time appeal in trial courts." Cook v. State, 313 Ga. 471, 506 (5) (870 S.E.2d 758) (2022).
Second, this Court has already affirmed Slade's convictions, and he is bound by the judgment in that case. See Jackson v. State, 273 Ga. 320, 320 (540 S.E.2d 612) (2001) (a defendant "is not entitled to another bite at the apple by way of a second appeal"); Ross v. State, 310 Ga.App. 326, 327 (713 S.E.2d 438) (2011) ("[A]ny issue that was raised and resolved in an earlier appeal is the law of the case and is binding on this Court[.]") (punctuation omitted); Jordan v. State, 253 Ga.App. 510, 511-512 (2) (559 S.E.2d 528) (2002) ("It is axiomatic that the same issue cannot be relitigated ad infinitum. The same is true of appeals of the same issue on the same grounds. Our determination in the earlier appeal is res judicata; the instant appeal is therefore barred, and we are without jurisdiction to review this same matter for a second time.").
For these reasons, this appeal is hereby DISMISSED.