The Tennessee Court of Appeals dismissed the request for a new trial for a Morristown man who beat his friend to death with a baseball bat in 2020 because the appeal was not filed in a timely manner.
In June of 2020, Joshua James Smith and his off-again, on-again girlfriend of 13 years Melissa Scott were invited by Mike Roach to move into his mobile home.
The following day, a drunken Smith got into an argument with Scott during which he hit her in the eye and grabbed her throat. Roach intervened and was shoved to the ground while Scott ran to a neighbor69制片厂制作传媒檚 house for help.
During the 911 call, the neighbor reported seeing someone chase another person around the mobile home with a bat.
The neighbor 69制片厂制作传媒 and two other witnesses 69制片厂制作传媒 reported seeing Smith strike Roach with the bat and keep hitting him while he was down.
Roach died four days later suffering from a broken arm, significant blunt force trauma and multiple skull fractures.
Smith tried to claim Roach had attacked him but was charged with First-Degree Murder. A jury found him gulty of the lesser charge of Second-Degree Murder and on July 5, 2023, he was sentenced to 23 years in the Tennessee Department of Correction.
On September 13 69制片厂制作传媒 70 days later 69制片厂制作传媒 Smith69制片厂制作传媒檚 attorney filed an appeal asking for a new trial even though state law requires an appeal be filed within 30 days.
The trial court noted the original appeal was late but went ahead and heard the motion to appeal, denying it on September 29 of that year.
The defendant filed a notice of appeal of that decision six days later.
Last week, citing the delay in filing the original appeal, the Court of Appeals dismissed the subsequent filing, saying the court cannot simply waive the timely filing requirement barring a situation in which 69制片厂制作传媒渢he interest of Justice69制片厂制作传媒 calls for it.
In other words, the court would only consider waiving the requirement in an instance were not doing so would clearly represent a grave injustice.
69制片厂制作传媒淚f this court were to summarily grant a waiver whenever confronted with untimely notices, the thirty-day requirement of Tennessee Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a) would be rendered a legal fiction,69制片厂制作传媒 the court ruled. 69制片厂制作传媒淥n balance, we conclude that the interest of justice does not weigh in favor of waiving the requirement of a timely filed notice of appeal.69制片厂制作传媒
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