Lashawn Deangelo Grier v. State

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ May 08, 2020

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order: A20A1784. LASHAWN DEANGELO GREER v. THE STATE.

In 2012, LaShawn Grier pled guilty to armed robbery. He subsequently moved to withdraw his guilty plea, and the trial court denied the motion. We affirmed that ruling in an unpublished opinion. Grier v. State, Case No. A15A0427, decided May 5, 2015. In December 2019, Grier filed a motion to set aside a judgment, arguing that his indictment was flawed. The trial court denied the motion, and Grier filed this appeal.1 As the Georgia Supreme Court has made clear, a motion seeking to set aside or vacate an allegedly void criminal conviction is not one of the established procedures for challenging the validity of a judgment in a criminal case, and an appeal from the trial court’s ruling on such a motion must be dismissed. See Roberts v. State, 286 Ga. 532 (690 SE2d 150) (2010); see also Jones v. State, 290 Ga. App. 490, 494 (2) (659 SE2d 875) (2008) (challenge to validity of indictment is challenge to conviction). Accordingly, this appeal is hereby DISMISSED.

1 In its order, the trial court also purported to bar any future filing by Grier. Although a trial court may have authority to reject frivolous filings, a court may not deny a prisoner access to court. See Daker v. Humphrey, 294 Ga. 504, 505 (755 SE2d 201) (2014) (“Prisoners have a constitutional right of access to the courts. . . . Any restriction on a prisoner’s access to the courts must be ‘clearly warranted by the particular circumstances of each case.’”).

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 05/08/2020 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.