Background
The State alleged that Conor Catalan and co-defendant Railey Smelley were criminally negligent in causing their infant child’s death by asphyxiation. Catalan was charged under Georgia’s second-degree murder and second-degree cruelty-to-children statutes, OCGA §§ 16-5-1(d) and 16-5-70(c).
Catalan moved to quash the indictment, arguing that the statutes were unconstitutionally vague and overbroad as applied to him in light of the standard for proving proximate causation. After granting Smelley’s motion to quash, the trial court reconsidered its earlier denial of Catalan’s motion and granted him relief, reasoning that his alleged criminal responsibility was tied to Smelley’s conduct and that treating the two defendants differently would be incongruent.
The Court’s Holding
The Court of Appeals did not decide the merits of Catalan’s constitutional challenge. It explained that the Supreme Court of Georgia has exclusive jurisdiction over cases in which a law’s constitutionality has been called into question, provided the trial court distinctly ruled on the constitutional issue and the issue is not merely an application of settled constitutional law or a challenge previously rejected on the same ground.
Because the trial court expressly addressed the as-applied challenge and the constitutional issue did not appear to have been decided previously, the Court of Appeals concluded that jurisdiction might lie in the Supreme Court of Georgia. Recognizing that the state supreme court has ultimate responsibility for determining appellate jurisdiction, it transferred the appeal there for disposition.
Key Takeaways
- The Court of Appeals made no ruling on whether OCGA §§ 16-5-1(d) and 16-5-70(c) are unconstitutional as applied to Catalan.
- A distinctly decided, apparently novel constitutional challenge to a Georgia statute may fall within the Supreme Court of Georgia’s exclusive appellate jurisdiction.
- The appeal was transferred to the Supreme Court of Georgia to determine jurisdiction and dispose of the case.
Why It Matters
The order underscores that appellate forum is a threshold issue when a trial court has expressly ruled on a constitutional attack against a statute. Even when an appeal reaches the Court of Appeals, a novel constitutional challenge may require transfer to the Supreme Court of Georgia before the merits can be addressed.