Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

32 So. 3d 805

State v. Means

Supreme Court of Louisiana

Decided April 9, 2010

Supreme Court of Louisiana · decided 2010-04-09

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently November 2018

7 state decisions

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“A. A motion for an appeal may be made orally in open court or by filing a written motion with the clerk. The motion shall be entered in the minutes of the court. B. The motion for an appeal must be made no later than: (1) Thirty days after the rendition of the judgment or ruling from which the appeal is taken. |s(2) Thirty days from the ruling on a motion to reconsider sentence filed pursuant to Article 881.1, should such a motion be filed.”

quoted by 3 later decisions, including State v. Brown, 92 So. 3d 591 - State v. Murray

Relies on Dibert, Bancroft & Ross Co. v. Westinghouse Air Brake Co. · 423 So. 2d 648 - State v. Goodley · In Re Tallon

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 2010-04-09

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

PER CURIAM. 1

¶1 | granted. La.C.Cr.P. art. 914(A) provides in part that “[a] motion for an appeal may be made orally in open court or by filing a written motion with the clerk.” We have repeatedly emphasized that this article “should be construed liberally to effectuate a defendant’s constitutional right of appeal in Louisiana.” State v. Murphy, 07-2032 (La.2/22/08), 974 So.2d 1290 (citing State v. Goodley, 423 So.2d 648, 651 (La.1982)). Although somewhat inarticulate, defense counsel’s remarks in open court following sentencing, liberally construed, constituted the requisite motion for an appeal as authorized by La.C.Cr.P. art. 914(A) because counsel expressed his client’s “desire to proceed forward to Reconsideration [of sentence] and Appeal as quickly as possible as he has been incarcerated for sometime now.” It further *806 appears that in • response to defendant’s written pro se motion for an appeal which followed some months later, the trial court signed an order of appeal without objection by the | ¡.state. Although that order of appeal carried only the docket number for the charged offense and not the separate docket number given the subsequent habitual offender proceeding, the order necessarily encompassed both defendant’s conviction and sentence. Habitual offender proceedings do not charge a separate crime but are a part of the original proceeding leading to conviction, State v. Alexander, 325 So.2d 777, 779 (La.1976), and a defendant generally may appeal only from “[a] judgment which imposes sentence.” La.C.Cr.P. art. 912(C)(1). The clerk’s office in the district court thus prepared separate records for appeal of defendant’s conviction and appeal of his sentence to accommodate the separate docket numbers in the district court but included a sentencing transcripts in both records.

¶2 The decision below is reversed and the matter is remanded to the court of appeal to hear the merits of defendant’s appeal of his adjudication and sentence as an habitual offender under La. R.S. 15:529.1.

1

¶3 . Kimball, CJ, not participating.

/32/so3d/805 · .json · Public domain