McCary v. State
McCary v. State
Opinion of the Court
AFFIRMED BY UNPUBLISHED MEMORANDUM.
Concurring Opinion
concurring in the result in part and dissenting in part.
It does not appear to me that Pamela McCary has appealed that part of the trial court’s order denying her petition for relief under Rule 32, Ala.R.Crim.P., based on allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel. To the contrary, I note that the notice of appeal filed by McCary on June 9, 2004, specifically states that she “appeals ... from the judgment of conviction entered in this case on the 9th day of April, 2003, adjudging the defendant to be guilty of the offense of possession of controlled substance, possession [of] marijuana and as punishment thereof sentencing the defendant as follows: Ten years, split two to serve.” (C. 12.) Furthermore, on page 2 of her initial brief on appeal, McCary states that “[t]his appeal is the direct appeal from the judgment, April 9, 2003, and sentence rendered May 19, 2003.” On page 18 of her brief, she argues that “her case regarding ineffective assistance of counsel should be reviewed on direct appeal.” In addition, McCary argued on page 8 of her reply brief that “[i]t just makes sense that where ineffective assistance of counsel is obvious from the face of the record on direct appeal that the matter gets resolved on direct appeal.”
McCary’s ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim was properly raised in her Rule 32 petition and was subject to appellate review if she had appealed the Rule 32 order. See Rule 32.2(d), Ala. R.Crim. P., and V.R. v. State, 852 So.2d 194 (Ala.Crim.App. 2002). However, based on what seems to be a misunderstanding of Rule 32 and Ex parte Jefferson, 749 So.2d 406 (Ala. 1999), McCary apparently abandoned her right to appeal the trial court’s denial of her request for Rule 32 relief based on ineffective assistance of counsel and, instead, elected to raise her ineffective-assistance claim on the out-of-time direct ap
“Present counsel was appointed to move for the out of time appeal and did not have a transcript available with which to assess competency of trial counsel. Under Ala.R.Crim.P. 32.2, ineffective assistance of counsel must be raised now, on direct appeal as the first opportunity to present the issue. Rule 32.2(d) states in part that ‘any claim that counsel was ineffective must be raised as soon as practicable, either at trial, on direct appeal, or in the first Rule 32 petition, whichever is applicable.’ ”
(Emphasis added.) In the absence of a proper appeal of the trial court’s order denying her Rule 32 ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim, this Court has no jurisdiction to review the trial court’s order denying McCary relief under Rule 32.
For these reasons, and after carefully reviewing the record and briefs, I dissent from that portion of the unpublished memorandum treating this as an appeal from the denial of the Rule 32 ineffective-assistance claim. With respect to the remaining issues addressed on the direct appeal of the conviction, I concur in the result.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.