Graham v. State
Graham v. State
Opinion of the Court
Frank Graham was indicted, tried and convicted of murder in 1932, and was sentenced to life imprisonment in the penitentiary. He filed a motion for new trial, which was overruled, and that judgment was affirmed. 176 Ga. 11 (166 S. E. 662). On December 9, 1932, the defendant presented an extraordinary motion for new trial, based on the alleged relationship within the prohibited degree of one of the jurors, trying the defendant, with the deceased, it appearing that the juror was related within the same degree to both the deceased and the defendant. The motion was overruled, and the movant excepted.
It appears from the record that the extraordinary motion for a new trial was presented to the judge in vacation, on December 9, 1932. The hearing was had on December 31, 1932, and on that date the motion was overruled. The bill of exceptions to this judgment was tendered and certified on January 18, 1933, and was filed in the clerk’s office on February 1, 1933; all of these dates being in vacation. There are two terms of Effingham superior court, to wit, on the third Mondays in April and October. The defendant was tried at the October term, 1932, of Effingham superior court, which convened on the third Monday in October. A certificate of the clerk appears in the record, in which he certifies “that the minutes of said court show that the October term, 1932, of said court was adjourned on the 21st day of October, and that no term of said court has been held since that time, and that the next term of said court will convene on the third Monday in April, 1933.” Thus it appears that the entire proceedings with reference to the extraordinary motion for new trial were had in vacation.
An ordinary motion for new trial must be made during the term at which the trial was had; an extraordinary motion may be made during a subsequent term. It is not competent for a judge of the superior court, sitting at chambers, to entertain an original motion for new trial, where no prior order has been passed providing therefor during the term; and such a motion, if not filed in term time, is in law a mere nullity, as the court is without juris
Judgment reversed, with direction.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- GRAHAM v. State
- Status
- Published