Williams v. the State

Summary

The Supreme Court of Georgia dismissed Walter Williams' direct appeal from the trial court's denial of his March 2009 motion to correct an illegal sentence, in which he argued that his armed robbery conviction had merged as a matter of fact with his malice murder conviction under OCGA § 16-1-7 (a). Applying its 2009 decision in Harper, the Court held that a merger claim is a specific attack on the conviction rather than on the sentence, and that a motion to correct an illegal sentence is not an appropriate remedy for attacking a criminal conviction, leaving the Court without jurisdiction to hear the appeal. The Court also overruled several of its prior decisions to the extent they could be read as permitting direct appeals from the denial of merger claims. All the Justices concurred.