Pope v. State

Jomekia Dechelle Pope pleaded guilty to malice murder and felony murder in September 2018 in connection with the killing of Latosha Taylor, after an earlier conviction from a 2013 plea had been partly undone in an earlier appeal. Nearly two years later, in June 2020, Pope, representing himself, filed a motion asking the Bibb County Superior Court to let him withdraw that guilty plea. The trial court rejected the motion in December 2023, saying it came far too late, and Pope appealed to the Supreme Court of Georgia. The Supreme Court of Georgia agreed that the motion was untimely. Georgia law requires a request to withdraw a guilty plea to be filed within the same court term as the sentencing, and once that term ends, the trial court no longer has authority to grant the request. Because Pope waited almost two years, well past the end of that term, the trial court could not consider his motion and was right to reject it.

A motion to withdraw a guilty plea must be filed within the same term of court as the sentencing, and once that term expires, the trial court loses the power to grant the motion; a defendant who misses that window must instead pursue relief through a habeas corpus challenge to his imprisonment.

The decision reinforces a strict deadline for Georgians who want to undo a guilty plea: they must act within the same court term as sentencing or lose that avenue entirely, leaving habeas corpus as the only remaining option for later challenges.

Affirmed

1. The court applied the rule that a motion to withdraw a guilty plea must be filed within the same term of court as the sentencing, meaning the same block of months the court calendar designates as one session.
2. Once that court term ends, the trial court loses jurisdiction, meaning its legal authority to act, over any motion to withdraw the plea, and the defendant's only remaining option is a habeas corpus proceeding, a separate legal challenge to the legality of his imprisonment.
3. Applying Georgia's statute setting Bibb County Superior Court terms (O.C.G.A. § 15-6-3), the court found Pope's June 2020 motion was filed nearly two years after his September 2018 sentencing and well past the end of the relevant term.
4. Because the trial court lacked jurisdiction to rule on the merits of the untimely motion, the Supreme Court of Georgia held that its rejection of the motion was in substance a dismissal for lack of jurisdiction rather than a decision on the merits, and that outcome could be affirmed on that basis.

• guilty plea withdrawal
• malice murder conviction
• untimely motion
• Bibb County Superior Court
• habeas corpus