McDaniel v. State, 311 Ga. 367

Background:

In May 2014 a Paulding County grand jury indicted Robert McDaniel on multiple counts, including malice murder, firearm possession in commission of murder, aggravated stalking, and related assault/firearm counts arising from a fatal shooting and an assault on a separate victim.
On November 4, 2014 McDaniel pled guilty pursuant to a negotiated plea: malice murder (life with parole eligibility), possession of a firearm during murder (probated 5 years consecutive), aggravated stalking, and aggravated assault; several counts were nolle prossed or merged.
McDaniel later sought an out-of-time appeal in 2018; this Court granted discretionary review and remanded for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether plea counsel’s ineffective assistance caused McDaniel to lose a timely appeal (Collier remand).
At the July 2020 evidentiary hearing plea counsel testified she did not consult McDaniel about appealing, McDaniel did not ask to appeal, and he accepted the bargained-for sentence; the trial court denied the motion for an out-of-time appeal and separately denied his general demurrer and motion in arrest of judgment as untimely and meritless.
On appeal the Supreme Court: (1) declined to consider McDaniel’s belated challenge to the out-of-time denial because he failed to brief it (and in any event affirmed on the merits because Flores-Ortega factors showed no duty to consult); (2) dismissed review of the demurrer claims for lack of jurisdiction because McDaniel had not been granted an out-of-time appeal and thus had no valid appeal from his convictions; and (3) affirmed denial of the motion in arrest of judgment as untimely (trial court lacked jurisdiction to entertain it, and because the court also ruled on timeliness the Supreme Court affirmed rather than remand to dismiss).

Issues:

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether trial court erred in denying McDaniel’s motion for an out-of-time appeal (ineffective assistance re: appeal)	McDaniel argued plea counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to consult about or file a timely appeal, costing him his appeal right	State/trial court argued counsel’s conduct, in context (guilty plea, bargained sentence, no expression of desire to appeal), did not amount to constitutionally deficient performance	Affirmed: counsel had no duty to consult under Flores-Ortega given plea context; no reasonable probability McDaniel would have timely appealed
Whether the Court may review denial of McDaniel’s general demurrer attacking indictment defects	McDaniel urged that indictment failed to allege essential elements and trial court erred in denying demurrer	State argued no valid appeal on convictions because McDaniel was not granted an out-of-time appeal, so Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction to review those claims	Dismissed for lack of jurisdiction: no valid notice of appeal from convictions absent granted out-of-time appeal
Whether trial court erred in denying motion in arrest of judgment as untimely	McDaniel contended indictment defects justified arrest of judgment and trial court erred to deny it	State argued the motion was filed after the term of court at which judgment was obtained and thus untimely; trial court lacked jurisdiction to consider it	Affirmed: motion in arrest was untimely (filed after term); because trial court denied on timeliness and merits, Supreme Court affirmed rather than vacate/remand to dismiss

Key Cases Cited

Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984) (two-part ineffective-assistance standard)
Roe v. Flores-Ortega, 528 U.S. 470 (2000) (counsel’s duty to consult about appeals when defendant reasonably would want to appeal)
Ringold v. State, 304 Ga. 875 (2019) (applies Flores-Ortega in Georgia and explains duty to consult and factors to consider)
Collier v. State, 307 Ga. 363 (2019) (remand for evidentiary hearing on out-of-time appeal claims)
Ballard v. State, 304 Ga. 67 (2018) (untimely post-judgment motions—trial court should dismiss when lacking jurisdiction; vacatur/remand principles)
Moore v. State, 303 Ga. 743 (2018) (trial court lacked jurisdiction over untimely motion)
State v. Heath, 308 Ga. 836 (2019) (general demurrer may be raised as a motion in arrest of judgment)
Clark v. State, 310 Ga. 489 (2020) (no jurisdiction to review convictions absent valid notice of appeal)
Dos Santos v. State, 307 Ga. 151 (2019) (untimely motion in arrest is not always a legal nullity; context matters)
Bonner v. State, 310 Ga. 426 (2020) (same)