Gray v. State

• Decision Date: 19 October 2020
• Docket Number: S20G0192
• Citation: 310 Ga. 259,850 S.E.2d 36
• Parties: GRAY v. The STATE.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

310 Ga. 259

850 S.E.2d 36

GRAY

v.The STATE.

S20G0192

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Decided: October 19, 2020

Brian Steel, The Steel Law Firm, P.C., 1800 Peachtree Street, N.W., Suite 300, Atlanta, Georgia 30309, John H. Petrey, Petrey Law, LLC, 160 Clairemont Avenue, Ste 645, Decatur, Georgia 30030, Attorneys for the Appellant.

James C. Bonner, Jr., Georgia Public Defender Council, Suite 600, 104 Marietta Street, Atlanta, Georgia 30303, Brandon A. Bullard, The Bullard Firm, LLC, 3455 Peachtree Road NE, Fifth Floor, Atlanta, Georgia 30326, Andrew Santos Fleischman, Ross & Pines, LLC, 5555 Glenridge Connector, Suite 435, Atlanta, Georgia 30342, Greg Allen Willis, Willis Law Firm, 6000 Lake Forrest Drive, Suite 375, Atlanta, Georgia 30328, Lawrence Jason Zimmerman, The Law Office of Lawrence J. Zimmerman, 1800 Peachtree Street, N.W., Suite 300, Atlanta, Georgia 30309, Attorneys for the Amicus Appellant.

Sherry Boston, District Attorney, Otobong U. Ekpo, Destiny H. Bryant, Elizabeth Haase Brock, A.D.A., DeKalb County District Attorney's Office, 556 N. McDonough Street, Suite 700, Decatur, Georgia 30030, Attorneys for the Appellee.

McMillian, Justice.

We granted a petition for writ of certiorari to determine whether a trial court has jurisdiction to modify a sentence outside the one-year period after a sentence is imposed, as authorized under OCGA § 17-10-1 (f), when the motion to modify is filed within the one-year period. The Court of Appeals held in Gray v. State , 351 Ga. App. 703, 832 S.E.2d 857 (2019) that trial courts lack jurisdiction after one year, irrespective of when the motion to modify sentence is filed. As explained below, we reverse and remand the case to the Court of Appeals for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.¹

1. The Court of Appeals summarized the relevant facts as follows:

The record shows that Gray was indicted on five counts of sexual exploitation of children, and that in January 2017, he entered a non-negotiated plea of guilty and was sentenced to ten years to serve in prison followed by ten years on probation, with sexual offender requirements. Ten months later, Gray moved to modify his sentence. Eleven months after that, Gray and the State [jointly presented a consent order to the court to modify Gray's sentence to a term of five years in prison followed by fifteen years on probation. On October 3, 2018, they] appeared before a different trial court judge, sitting by designation, who granted the motion. Thus, twenty-one months after the original sentencing, the substitute judge entered a consent order reducing Gray's sentence to a term of five years to serve in prison followed by fifteen years on probation, with sexual offender requirements (the "Modification Order").

Three weeks later, [on October 23, 2018,] the originally assigned judge, acting sua sponte and without notice or a hearing, filed an order vacating the Modification Order and reinstating Gray's original sentence (the "Reinstatement Order"). The court found the Modification Order "to be inappropriate and not in the interests of justice," and the court cited as authority its "inherent power during the same term of court in which the judgment was rendered to revise, correct, revoke, modify or vacate the judgment, even upon his own motion."

Gray , 351 Ga. App. at 703, 832 S.E.2d 857.

Gray timely appealed to the Court of Appeals. Both Gray and the State argued that the Reinstatement Order was void under OCGA § 17-10-1 (f), with Gray asserting that the trial court violated his constitutional rights by imposing a higher sentence after he had already begun serving his lawful sentence as modified, and the State arguing that the Reinstatement Order was void because the trial court neither provided notice nor held a hearing as required by OCGA § 17-10-1 (f).

Without addressing either of those arguments, the Court of Appeals affirmed the Reinstatement Order "based on the plain language of OCGA § 17-10-1 (f)." Gray , 351 Ga. App. at 704, 832 S.E.2d 857. In reaching that conclusion, the Court of Appeals recounted a 70-year history of statutory and common-law authority, which permitted the trial court to modify a sentence within certain time limits so long as the proceeding initiating the sentence modification was begun within that time limit. See id. at 706 & nn.3-5, 832 S.E.2d 857. The Court of Appeals reasoned that "the legislature expressly limited the trial court's jurisdiction to modify sentences to a specific time when it enacted OCGA § 17-10-1 (f)" because it "could have included the common law exception in the statute, thereby allowing a court to rule on any motion filed within one year of sentencing, but it chose not to." Id. at 706, 832 S.E.2d 857. Relying on the addition of the word "jurisdiction" to OCGA § 17-10-1 (f) in 2001, the Court of Appeals held that the text explicitly limited trial courts’ jurisdiction to modify sentences to within one year of the initial sentence regardless of when a motion to modify sentence is filed. See id. at 707, 832 S.E.2d 857 ("[T]he legislature later rewrote the statute to make the time constraints jurisdictional by adding language to provide that the sentencing court only ‘has the jurisdiction, power, and authority’ to correct or reduce a sentence within the specific times."). Thus, the Court of Appeals held that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to enter the Modification Order, and the original sentencing judge was authorized to correct the void modified sentence and thereby reinstate the original sentence. See id.

We granted Gray's petition for a writ of certiorari and asked the following question:

Where the petitioner sought modification of his sentence within one year of his original sentencing, did the Court of Appeals err in ruling that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to enter its order modifying petitioner's sentence, because the order was entered outside the one-year period authorized under OCGA § 17-10-1 (f) ? Compare Tyson v. State , 301 Ga. App. 295, 296, 687 S.E.2d 284 (2009).^{[2 ]}

2. The central issue in this case is whether a trial court retains jurisdiction under OCGA § 17-10-1 (f) to modify a sentence when the motion to modify was filed within the one-year time limit. "[W]e first look to the text because a statute draws its meaning from its text." Stubbs v. Hall , 308 Ga. 354, 363 (4), 840 S.E.2d 407 (2020) (citation and punctuation omitted). "The primary determinant of a text's meaning is its context." City of Guyton v. Barrow , 305 Ga. 799, 805 (3), 828 S.E.2d 366 (2019). "For context, we may look to other provisions of the same statute, the structure and history of the whole statute, and the other law—constitutional, statutory, and common law alike—that forms the legal background of the statutory provision in question." Johnson v. State , 308 Ga. 141, 144-45, 839 S.E.2d 521 (2020) (citation and punctuation omitted). "[A]ll statutes are presumed to be enacted by the legislature with full knowledge of the existing condition of the law and with reference to it. They are therefore to be construed in connection and in harmony with the existing law." Grange Mut. Cas. Co. v. Woodard , 300 Ga. 848, 852 (2) (a), 797 S.E.2d 814 (2017) (citations and punctuation omitted).

As a result, we presume that "common-law rules are still of force and effect ... except where they have been changed by express statutory enactment or by necessary implication." Id. at. 854 (2) (b), 797 S.E.2d 814 (citation and punctuation omitted); see also Undisclosed LLC v. State , 302 Ga. 418, 421 (2) (a), 807 S.E.2d 393 (2017) ("[A]lthough the common law may be amended, such changes must be clear."). "To the extent that statutory text can be as reasonably understood to conform to the common law as to depart from it, the courts usually presume that the legislature meant to adhere to the common law." Coen v. Aptean, Inc. , 307 Ga. 826, 838-39 (3) (c), 838 S.E.2d 860 (2020) (punctuation omitted) (quoting May v. State , 295 Ga. 388, 397, 761 S.E.2d 38 (2014) ). "When we construe ... statutory authority on appeal, our review is de novo." State v. Coleman , 306 Ga. 529, 530, 832 S.E.2d 389 (2019).

3. Georgia courts have long applied the common-law rule that the trial court has the inherent authority to modify a judgment within the term of court and that "a motion made during the term serves to extend the power to modify." Porterfield v. State , 139 Ga. App. 553, 554, 228 S.E.2d 722 (1976) (physical precedent only).³ As explained in United States v. Mayer , 235 U.S. 55, 35 S.Ct. 16, 59 L.Ed. 129 (1914), the common-law rule provides that "[i]n the absence of [a] statute providing otherwise, the general principle obtains that a court cannot set aside or alter its final judgment after the expiration of the term at which it was entered, unless the proceeding for that purpose was begun during that term. " Id. at 67 (1), 35 S.Ct. 16 (emphasis supplied); see also Miraglia v. Bryson, 152 Ga. 828, 111 S.E. 655 (1922) (following Mayer ).

The current version of OCGA § 17-10-1 (f) was enacted in 2001, and the relevant portion provides:

Within one year of the date upon which the sentence is imposed, or within 120 days after receipt by the sentencing court of the remittitur upon affirmance of the judgment after direct appeal, whichever is later, the court imposing the sentence has the jurisdiction, power, and authority to correct or reduce the sentence and to suspend or probate all or any part of the sentence imposed.

Ga. L. 2001, p. 94, § 5. This and previous versions of the statute have granted trial court judges "power and authority" for a specific period of time to suspend or probate sentences, and some versions, including the current version, have extended that time period beyond the term of court in which the sentence was imposed. The term "jurisdiction" was added for the first time in 2001.⁴

No version of this statute has explicitly addressed whether the trial court was authorized to modify a sentence so long as the ...