550 S.W.2d 547 | Ky. | 1977
The petitioner, James Williams, who alleges that in September of 1953 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for armed robbery, has filed in this court for the third time a petition for an order of mandamus directing the respondent judge to have the clerk of his court prepare a transcript of the petitioner’s trial record. The previous applications were denied.
Section 110(2)(b) of the Kentucky Constitution as amended effective January 1, 1976, provides that an appeal from a judgment of the circuit court “imposing a sentence of death or life imprisonment or imprisonment for twenty years or more shall be taken directly to the Supreme Court.” A judgment or order denying a postconviction motion, however, is not a judgment “imposing a sentence.” Hence an appeal from it is addressable to the Court of Appeals. By parity of reasoning, so is a petition for mandamus or prohibition seeking to enforce or prevent an action by a circuit judge in a posteonviction proceeding. Cf. Coffey v. Anderson, Ky., 371 S.W.2d 624, 625 (1963); Northcutt v. Shelton, Ky., 436 S.W.2d 264 (1969).
The petition is dismissed.
