Harper v. State, 318 Ga. 185

Terry Harper and Emmanuel Ruiz were convicted in 2003 for the 2001 shooting deaths of three people at F.J.'s Tavern in Georgia.
Harper was sentenced to three consecutive life terms plus five years for weapon possession.
Harper's direct appeal was delayed for over 19 years due to various factors including attorney inactivity, Harper's motions to change counsel, and the reassignment of the case to several judges.
At trial, Harper's defense included evidence that he had a severe injury to his dominant hand at the time of the murders, which was partially documented through testimony but not supported by medical records.
Harper filed multiple amended motions for a new trial raising issues including the excessive delay in appeal, prejudicial prosecutor statements at trial, and ineffective assistance of counsel.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Due process violation due to delay	19-year delay in appeal impaired right to due process	Delay was partly Harper's fault; no actual prejudice shown	No due process violation; prejudice not shown
Motion for mistrial (prosecutor's stmt)	Prosecutor's reference to excluded statement was bad faith, prejudicial	Prosecutor acted in good faith, curative instruction given	No abuse of discretion; curative instructions cured prejudice
Ineffective assistance: hand injury	Counsel failed to obtain medical evidence supporting injury defense	Testimony already presented injury; records would not change outcome	No prejudice under Strickland; claim fails

Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514 (four-factor test for evaluating delay claims)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (test for ineffective assistance of counsel)
Chatman v. Mancill, 280 Ga. 253 (applies Barker test to speedy appeal and defines prejudice standard)
Veal v. State, 301 Ga. 161 (prejudice must be shown for speedy appeal claim)
Hyden v. State, 308 Ga. 218 (appellate review of denials of speedy appeal claims)