Lawrence Burton v. State
Lawrence Burton v. State
Opinion
Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia ATLANTA,__________________ October 23, 2012 The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order: A13A0233. LAWRENCE BURTON v. THE STATE.
Lawrence Burton was charged with criminal attempt to commit armed robbery and other crimes. The indictment was later ordered to be placed on the dead docket.
Burton was apparently re-indicted, convicted, and sentenced to 20 years’ incarceration. He filed a motion to modify his sentence, but his motion inadvertently listed the number of his original, dead-docketed case.1 The trial court entered an order denying the motion, but that order also listed the incorrect case number. Burton filed a timely notice of appeal, and the trial court clerk’s office transmitted the record from the dead-docketed case to this Court. That record, of course, contains no documents pertaining to the re-indicted case, such as the sentence that Burton wishes to challenge.
In light of Burton’s error in listing the wrong case number on his motion, and the trial court’s error in issuing a denial order that likewise listed the wrong case number, we REMAND this case to the trial court. On remand, Burton’s motion should be re-docketed with the correct case number, and the trial court should enter an appropriate order on the re-docketed motion. After entry of that order, Burton will have the right to appeal again.
It is clear that Burton meant to challenge the sentence entered in the re- indicted case, and his motion should be interpreted accordingly. See Martin v. Williams, 263 Ga. 707, 708 (1) (438 SE2d 353) (1994) (motion’s substance controls over its nomenclature).
Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia 10/23/2012 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.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.