Harper v. the State

Summary

The Supreme Court of Georgia dismissed Richard Harper's pro se appeal from the denial of his motion to vacate his 1982 DeKalb County murder conviction, holding that a motion to vacate a conviction is not an appropriate remedy in a criminal case. The court overruled Division 2 of Chester v. State (2008), which had allowed defendants to challenge convictions at any time by motion alleging the conviction is void, reasoning that Chester was wrongly decided as an improvident departure from more than a century of precedent, significantly undermined the finality of criminal judgments, and proved unworkable for lack of any procedural framework. The court restored the pre-Chester rule requiring post-appeal challenges through an extraordinary motion for new trial, a motion in arrest of judgment, or a petition for habeas corpus. Justice Melton, joined by Chief Justice Hunstein and Justice Benham, dissented, arguing Chester correctly applied the plain language of OCGA § 17-9-4 and should have been followed, which would have resulted in affirmance because the evidence showed the crime occurred in DeKalb County.