Melvin Eugene Reeves v. State

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ May 01, 2015

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order: A15D0362. MELVIN EUGENE REEVES v. THE STATE.

Melvin Eugene Reeves, defendant in the criminal case below, filed a pro se motion to correct his allegedly void sentence. In a single order, the trial court both denied Reeves’s motion and ordered that any future filings by Reeves will be subject to frivolity review by the court before they will be filed. Reeves then filed this application for discretionary appeal. The trial court’s order, however, is subject to direct appeal. See In re Lawsuits of Carter, 235 Ga. App. 551 (510 SE2d 91) (1998) (party may directly appeal from an order that imposes a filing restriction on his future filings).1 We will grant an otherwise timely application for discretionary appeal if the lower court’s order is subject to direct appeal. See OCGA § 5-6-35 (j). Accordingly, this application is hereby GRANTED, and Reeves shall have ten days from the date of this order to file a notice of appeal with the trial court. If he has already filed a notice of appeal in the trial court, he need not file a second notice. The clerk of the trial court is DIRECTED to include a copy of this order in the record transmitted to the Court of Appeals.

1 Although Reeves is incarcerated, the Prison Litigation Reform Act, which requires inmates to follow the discretionary appeal procedures to obtain appellate review, does not apply because this is not a civil case. See OCGA § 42-12-3 (1) (under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, “‘[a]ction’ means any civil lawsuit, action, or proceeding, including an appeal, filed by a prisoner but shall not include an appeal of a criminal proceeding[.]”).

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia 05/01/2015 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.