---
title: Ware v. State
collection: opinions
id: S22A0098
cite_as: Ware v. State, 313 Ga. 324 (2022)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S22A0098
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S22A0098.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S22A0098/text
source_url: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10679941/ware-v-state/
date: 2022-02-15
status: published
corpus_version: opinions-2026-09-14
license: Public record of the Supreme Court of Georgia, via CourtListener and the court's own website; see about.md
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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omitted: opinion extras
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omitted_url: https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S22A0098.md?full=1
docket: S22A0098
citation: 313 Ga. 324
court: Supreme Court of Georgia
case_type: criminal appeal
authoring_justice: Peterson
disposition: Vacated and remanded with direction to dismiss as untimely
vote: All the Justices concur
word_count: 426
date_filed_source: courtlistener
citations:
  - 869 S.E.2d 479
record_source: courtlistener
legal_areas:
  - criminal law
  - criminal procedure
upstream_id: "10679941"
summaries_model: claude-sonnet-5
---

# Ware v. State

Supreme Court of Georgia, docket S22A0098, filed 2022-02-15, 313 Ga. 324.

## Opinion

313 Ga. 324 FINAL COPY

S22A0098. WARE v. THE STATE.

PETERSON, Justice.

Jermaine Ware was convicted of malice murder and other crimes, with a final disposition being entered by the Superior Court of Polk County in December 2012. Ware appealed, and this Court affirmed Ware’s convictions on direct appeal. See Ware v. State, 302 Ga. 792 (809 SE2d 762) (2018). In June 2021, Ware filed a pro se motion in arrest of judgment, alleging, among other things, that the indictment was defective. The superior court denied Ware’s motion, stating that Ware was barred from raising issues that could have been raised on direct appeal. Ware appeals, but we need not consider the merits of Ware’s arguments because the superior court should have dismissed the motion as untimely. Therefore, we vacate the trial court’s order and remand the case with direction.

The law is clear that a defendant must file a motion in arrest of judgment during the term in which the judgment was entered. See OCGA § 17-9-61 (b) (“A motion in arrest of judgment must be made during the term at which the judgment was obtained.”); Lay v. State, 289 Ga. 210, 211 (2) (710 SE2d 141) (2011) (same). When a defendant files a motion in arrest of judgment after such term has expired, the motion is untimely, and the trial court lacks the authority to grant any relief. See Witherspoon v. State, 304 Ga. 306, 307 (818 SE2d 512) (2018). A trial court presented with such a motion should dismiss it, rather than deny it, and we will vacate a trial court’s order that considers the merits of an untimely motion in arrest of judgment. See id. And so it is here.

Ware’s convictions were entered in December 2012, during the July term of the Polk County Superior Court that expired in March 2013. See OCGA § 15-6-3 (38) (B). Ware filed his motion in arrest of judgment in June 2021, well after the expiration of the term in which he was convicted. The superior court lacked jurisdiction to rule on the merits of Ware’s untimely motion. Accordingly, we vacate the court’s order and remand with direction to dismiss Ware’s motion as untimely.

Judgment vacated and case remanded with direction. All the Justices concur.

Decided February 15, 2022.

Motion in arrest of judgment. Polk Superior Court. Before Judge Murphy.

Jermaine Ware, pro se.

Jack Browning, District Attorney; Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Paula K. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Matthew B. Crowder, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

## Summaries written by Georgia Commons

The following was written by claude-sonnet-5 from the opinion above and is not part of the court's opinion. Quote the opinion, not the summary.

The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a man's motion challenging his 2012 murder indictment came far too late, since Georgia law requires such motions to be filed during the same court term as the judgment.

### Plain-language summary

Jermaine Ware was convicted of malice murder in Polk County in December 2012, and the Supreme Court of Georgia already upheld that conviction on direct appeal in 2018. In June 2021, Ware, representing himself, filed a motion in arrest of judgment, a request asking the trial court to void the judgment because he claimed the indictment was legally defective.
The Polk County Superior Court denied the motion, saying Ware should have raised the issue on direct appeal. On appeal again, the Supreme Court of Georgia did not reach that question at all. Instead, it found the real problem was timing: Georgia law requires this type of motion to be filed during the same court term in which the judgment was entered. Ware's motion came nearly a decade later, so the trial court never had authority to rule on it and should have dismissed it outright rather than deny it on the merits.

### Holding, as summarized

A motion in arrest of judgment must be filed during the same court term in which the judgment was entered, and a trial court that receives such a motion after that term expires has no authority to rule on its merits and must instead dismiss it as untimely.

### Disposition

Vacated and remanded with direction to dismiss as untimely. All the Justices concur.

### Why it matters

The ruling reinforces a strict filing deadline that limits how convicted defendants in Georgia can challenge indictments after the fact. It signals to trial courts statewide that untimely arrest-of-judgment motions must be dismissed for lack of authority, not decided on their merits.

> The summarized reasoning, checked quotes, suggested questions, and the CourtListener opinion records (1,733 characters) are at https://georgiacommons.org/opinions/S22A0098.md?full=1