Roderick Howard v. State

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ December 16, 2014

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order: A14A1672. HOWARD v. THE STATE.

On March 31, 2014, Roderick Howard filed in the trial court a motion requesting copies of the “Index and Records” of Case No. SU95CR291 and Case No. SU96CR397, asserting that “without these documents,” he could not process appeals pending in Case No. A14A1106 and A14A1107 (which appeals were from orders entered in the aforementioned trial court cases, respectively). On April 11, 2014, the trial court issued an order denying Howard’s motion. Citing Shelby v. McDaniel,1 and Mydell v. Clerk,2 the court concluded that “[a]fter careful consideration of the Defendant’s Motion, and the relevant Georgia law, the Court finds that the Defendant failed to show necessity or justification for receiving a copy of his trial transcript and case records.” On April 25, 2014, Howard filed a notice of appeal from that order.

On April 1, 2014, this Court issued an order dismissing Case No. A14A1106 on the ground that Howard had failed to follow the required interlocutory appeal procedures of OCGA § 5-6-34 (b) to obtain immediate appellate review. Howard then filed in the Supreme Court of Georgia a petition for certiorari from the dismissal order in Case No. A14A1106; on September 8, 2014, the Georgia Supreme Court dismissed his petition. On September 30, 2014, in an unpublished opinion, this Court

1 266 Ga. 215, 216 (465 SE2d 433) (1996). 2 241 Ga. 24 (243 SE2d 72) (1978).

affirmed the trial court’s denial of Howard’s motion for out-of-time appeal in Case No. A14A1107. In that opinion, we held that one of the two alleged errors which Howard had enumerated on appeal did not assert any error of the trial court and presented nothing for us to review; as to the second alleged error enumerated, the law of the case rule barred Howard from obtaining the relief he sought.

There being no appeals pending for which Howard claimed that he needed the specified trial court indices and records, Howard’s appeal from the denial of his request for the court documents is moot.3 The questions presented having become moot, this appeal is hereby DISMISSED.4

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia 12/16/2014 Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ I certify that the above is a true extract from the minutes of the Court of Appeals of Georgia. Witness my signature and the seal of said court hereto affixed the day and year last above written.

, Clerk.

3 See generally Jennings v. State, 277 Ga. App. 71, 73 (625 SE2d 492) (2005) (motion to amend transcript for use in arguing new trial motions was rendered moot when those motions were no longer pending in the trial court or on appeal). 4 See id.; OCGA § 5-6-48 (b) (3).