James Leon Washington v. State

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia

ATLANTA,____________________ June 04, 2024

The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order: A24A1494. JAMES LEON WASHINGTON v. THE STATE.

On December 14, 2023, this Court granted James Leon Washington’s discretionary application from the trial court’s dismissal of his “motion to appoint counsel, withdraw guilty plea, and change sentence.” See Case No. A24D0181.This Court’s order granting the application notified Washington that he would have ten days to file a notice of appeal. See OCGA § 5-6-35 (g). Despite this directive, Washington did not file a notice of appeal. Instead, on February 28, 2024, 78 days after we granted his application, Washington filed in the trial court a letter in which he asked the court to confirm receipt of the notice of appeal filed with his application or “to obtain same, put correct filing date on it, and process appeal.”

“The proper and timely filing of the notice of appeal is an absolute requirement to confer appellate jurisdiction upon this court.” Ebeling v. State, 355 Ga. App. 469, 469 (844 SE2d 518) (2020). Although “there is no magic in nomenclature,” Doe v. State, 347 Ga. App. 246, 250 (1) (819 SE2d 58) (2018) (punctuation omitted), we cannot construe the application for appellate review that Washington filed in this Court as a notice of appeal, which must be filed in the trial court. See OCGA §§ 5-6-35 (g); 5-6-37. Because Washington failed to file a notice of appeal in the trial court within ten days of this Court’s order granting his application, his appeal is untimely. See Barnes v. Justis, 223 Ga. App. 671, 671-672 (478 SE2d 402) (1996). Accordingly, this appeal is hereby DISMISSED for lack of jurisdiction.

Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia Clerk’s Office, Atlanta,____________________ 06/04/2024 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.