Howard v. State, 289 Ga. 207

Howard was convicted of murder on October 4, 1996 and timely moved for a new trial, denied August 14, 2004.
Howard’s conviction was affirmed on appeal (Howard v. State, 279 Ga. 166, 611 S.E.2d 3 (2005)).
On June 26, 2009, Howard moved to vacate void indictment, judgment, and sentence; motion denied July 9, 2009.
Howard’s appeal from that denial was dismissed in Case No. S10A0028 (dismissed December 1, 2009).
On April 23, 2010, Howard filed a motion in arrest of judgment alleging void indictment; trial court dismissed April 30, 2010.
Howard’s appeal from the arrest-of-judgment dismissal was dismissed in Case No. S11A0392 (January 19, 2011).
The current pro se appeal challenges the trial court’s dismissal of his appeal for failure to pay appeal costs.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether res judicata bars Howard’s current claims	Howard	State	Claims barred; not considered
Whether the dismissal for failure to pay costs was proper	Howard sought in forma pauperis	Howard failed to timely paid costs	Dismissal affirmed; no legal harm shown

Norris v. Norris, 281 Ga. 566 (2007) (res judicata bars re-litigation of issues raised in prior appeals)
Thompson v. State, 286 Ga. 889 (2010) (motion in arrest of judgment untimely if not within term of court)
Dasher v. State, 285 Ga. 308 (2009) (untimely motions fail as a matter of law)
Lay v. State, 289 Ga. 210 (2011) (direct appeal from trial court order subject to direct appeal if underlying case properly appealable)
American Med. Security Group v. Parker, 284 Ga. 102 (2008) (direct appeal rights preserved when underlying case properly subject to direct appeal)