Brock v. Hardman
Brock v. Hardman
Opinion of the Court
*737James Brock appeals from the denial of his mandamus petition seeking records related to his murder convictions. We first address whether we have jurisdiction over the appeal arising from this civil action. We conclude that this appeal arises from an extraordinary remedies case "concerning proceedings in which a sentence of death was imposed or could be imposed," and thus we have jurisdiction under OCGA § 15-3-3.1 (a) (4). Nevertheless, Brock's appeal must be dismissed for failure to file a discretionary application as OCGA § 42-12-8 requires for civil cases filed by prisoners.
The record shows that Brock was convicted of two counts of murder and other offenses in 2011. He sought to appeal his convictions to this Court by filing a notice of appeal in July 2015. We dismissed his appeal for failure to file a brief and enumeration of errors after being ordered to do so.
Following the dismissal of his direct appeal, Brock filed a petition for a writ of mandamus to force the Muscogee County Superior Court Clerk to release records in criminal case number SU-09-CR-3127, which was the number originally assigned to his case before it was reassigned as case number SU-10-CR-2571 after the return of a superseding indictment.
1. Although not raised by either party, it is our duty to inquire into our jurisdiction "in any case in which there may be a doubt about the existence of such jurisdiction." Fulton County v. City of Atlanta,
This appeal raises a question left unresolved by our recent opinion in Henderson v. State,
Here, Brock's request for records was not filed under either docket number associated with his criminal prosecution, but as a separate civil action in the form of a mandamus petition. As a separately filed civil action, this case is not within our murder jurisdiction.
*738Mandamus is an extraordinary remedy to compel a public officer to perform a required duty when there is no other adequate legal remedy. Clayton County Bd. of Commrs. v. Murphy,
In this case, the mandamus petition clearly concerned proceedings in which a sentence of death was or could be imposed. Brock was seeking records in a case in which he was indicted for murder, that case was renumbered to the case under which he was tried and convicted of murder, and he claimed that the State was required to pay for those records so that he could challenge that conviction. Brock's claim arises only from his conviction for murder and his desire to use those records to challenge that conviction. So, a mandamus petition brought by a prisoner convicted of murder claiming a right to free records of his murder case for the purpose of challenging that conviction is a case "concerning [the] proceedings" in which a sentence of death could have been imposed. Therefore, this is an appeal arising from an extraordinary remedy case, and we retain jurisdiction under OCGA § 15-3-3.1 (4).
2. Our conclusion that we have jurisdiction over this appeal doesn't help Brock, though, because the appeal still must be dismissed. Brock filed this civil action as a prisoner, and appeals from such actions must proceed via the discretionary application process. See OCGA § 42-12-8 ; Harris v. State,
Appeal dismissed.
All the Justices concur.
Brock also filed a petition for a writ of mandamus in this Court, but we dismissed the petition and directed Brock to first seek relief in the trial court.
The trial court rejected this argument at Brock's motion for new trial hearing.
We have interpreted Subparagraph 8 to give us jurisdiction over cases in which a murder charge is pending or a conviction has been returned on such a charge. See Neal v. State,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- BROCK v. HARDMAN.
- Cited By
- 38 cases
- Status
- Published