Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

723 So. 2d 826

Lawton v. State

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama

Decided October 23, 1998

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama · decided 1998-10-23

Cited by 2 later decisions — most recently March 2001

1 federal appellate · 1 state decisions

Relies on Goodwin v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1998-10-23

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

McMILLAN, Judge.

¶1This appeal comes from the summary dismissal of the appellant’s second Rule 32, Ala.R.Crim.P., petition. This Court affirmed the trial court’s dismissal of the appellant’s first petition by an unpublished memorandum on the grounds that the petition was filed outside the limitations period. Rule 32.2(c), Ala.R.Crim.P. The appellant alleges in his second petition that the trial court was without jurisdiction to impose sentence because, he says, the jury was not sworn and because, he says, there was insufficient probable cause to support his arrest.

¶2However, the record indicates that the appellant filed a motion in forma pauper-is with his Rule 32 petition, which motion was denied by the trial court. The trial court does not appear to have addressed the Rule 32 petition, although the appellant apparently believed that this petition was denied. Rather, the trial court denied the in forma pau-peris motion; therefore, “there is no final judgment from which the appellant may properly proceed to this Court. A writ of mandamus is the proper vehicle by which a petitioner may compel the trial court to proceed on a Rule 32 petition in which the trial court has denied the petitioner’s request to proceed in forma pauperis.” Goodwin v. State, 720 So.2d 1050 (Ala.Cr.App.1998). Therefore, this appeal is due to be dismissed.

¶3APPEAL DISMISSED.

LONG, P.J., and COBB, BROWN, and BASCHAB, JJ., concur.
/723/so2d/826 · .json · Public domain