Charles v. State

Ken Clint Patrick Charles pleaded guilty to malice murder and other charges in Bartow County in 1997 and was sentenced to life plus five years, but he never appealed at the time. In 2025, relying on a new Georgia law letting defendants seek permission for a late notice of appeal, he asked a trial court for that permission, and the court granted it in March 2026. He then tried to appeal his guilty plea directly to the Supreme Court of Georgia. The problem was a different, newer requirement: guilty plea appeals must be brought through a discretionary application, a request asking an appellate court for permission to hear the case, filed within 30 days of the decision being challenged. Charles never filed that application, and the law allowing late notices of appeal does not cover late discretionary applications. Because of that gap, the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled it had no power to hear his appeal and dismissed it.

The court held that because a direct appeal from a guilty plea must be brought by a discretionary application filed within 30 days of the challenged decision, and the out-of-time notice of appeal statute does not authorize late discretionary applications, it lacked jurisdiction to consider Charles's appeal.

The ruling clarifies that Georgia's new out-of-time appeal law does not rescue people who missed the separate 30-day deadline for discretionary applications from guilty pleas. Defendants, defense attorneys, and trial courts must recognize this gap or risk losing appellate review entirely, no matter how a trial court rules on a late-appeal motion.

Appeal dismissed

1. Georgia law requires that direct appeals from guilty pleas be brought through an application for discretionary appeal (a formal request asking the appellate court for permission to hear the case) under OCGA § 5-6-35(a)(5.3), which must be filed within 30 days of the challenged decision under OCGA § 5-6-35(d).
2. A separate, newer statute, OCGA § 5-6-39.1, lets defendants ask a trial court for permission to file a late notice of appeal, but by its own terms it says nothing about letting defendants file a late discretionary application.
3. Because Charles was appealing his guilty plea, he needed a discretionary application filed within 30 days, but he never filed one within that window; instead he only obtained permission for a late notice of appeal, which is a different and insufficient procedural vehicle.
4. The court applied its recent decision in Burkett v. State, which held that missing the discretionary application deadline for a guilty plea appeal forecloses the appeal even where a late notice of appeal was otherwise allowed.
5. Because the jurisdictional deadline for the required discretionary application was missed and no statute excuses that failure, the Supreme Court of Georgia concluded it lacked jurisdiction over Charles's appeal and had to dismiss it.

• guilty plea appeal
• out-of-time appeal
• discretionary application deadline
• Bartow County murder case
• appellate jurisdiction