Timothy Frady v. State, A22A1227

In 2016 Timothy Frady was convicted of rape, incest, and two counts of child molestation.
This Court previously affirmed those convictions on direct appeal.
Frady later filed a motion in arrest of judgment claiming his convictions were void for lack of jurisdiction, alleged fraud, defects on the record, and challenging his arrest and the indictment.
The trial court dismissed the first motion as untimely because it was filed after the term of court in which he was convicted; Frady filed a second motion repeating the same claims and it was dismissed as untimely.
Frady appealed the dismissal to the Court of Appeals.
The Court of Appeals concluded it lacked jurisdiction to entertain Frady’s collateral attack and also found the appeal barred by res judicata based on prior appellate rulings, and therefore dismissed the appeal.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether a motion in arrest of judgment may be used to collaterally attack the validity of a conviction	Frady argued his convictions were void and could be attacked via a motion in arrest of judgment	State argued such collateral attacks are not authorized by established procedures and appeals from denial are subject to dismissal	Court held a motion seeking to challenge an allegedly invalid/void conviction is not an established collateral procedure; the Court lacks jurisdiction to review such an appeal
Timeliness of the motion in arrest of judgment	Frady maintained his claims were meritorious despite filing after the term of court	State asserted the motions were untimely and properly dismissed by the trial court	Trial court dismissal for untimeliness was noted; appellate disposition rested on lack of jurisdiction and res judicata rather than revisiting timeliness
Whether repeated appeals of previously resolved issues are permissible (res judicata)	Frady renewed substantially the same claims previously rejected on appeal	State argued prior appeals resolved the issues and Frady cannot relitigate them	Court held earlier appellate decisions are law of the case; res judicata bars the current appeal and Court is without jurisdiction

Frady v. State, 359 Ga. App. 255 (affirming the underlying convictions)
Roberts v. State, 286 Ga. 532 (2010) (a motion seeking to collaterally challenge an allegedly void conviction is not an established procedure; appeals from denial may be dismissed)
Harper v. State, 286 Ga. 216 (2009) (same principle regarding limits on collateral attacks)
Jones v. State, 290 Ga. App. 490 (2008) (attacks on the indictment are effectively attempts to vacate the judgment of conviction)
Ross v. State, 310 Ga. App. 326 (2011) (law of the case binds later appeals on issues resolved earlier)
Jackson v. State, 273 Ga. 320 (2001) (a party is not entitled to a second appeal on the same issue)
Jordan v. State, 253 Ga. App. 510 (2002) (the same issue cannot be relitigated ad infinitum; prior appellate determination is res judicata)