Title: Laster v. State of Delaware
Citation: N/A
Docket Number: 170, 2022
State: Delaware
Issuer: Delaware Supreme Court
Date: June 30, 2022

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE 
 
JERMAINE LASTER, 
 
Defendant Below, 
Appellant, 
 
v. 
 
STATE OF DELAWARE, 
 
Appellee. 
§ 
§   
§  No. 170, 2022 
§ 
§  Court Below: Superior Court 
§  of the State of Delaware 
§   
§  Cr. ID No. 1307014887 
§   
§ 
 
Submitted:  June 17, 2022 
Decided:  June 30, 2022 
 
Before VALIHURA, VAUGHN, and TRAYNOR, Justices. 
 
 
 
ORDER 
 
After consideration of the notice to show cause and the responses, it appears 
to the Court that: 
(1) 
On May 19, 2022, the appellant, Jermaine Laster, filed a notice of 
appeal from a Superior Court order dated March 21, 2022, that denied Laster’s 
motion for reargument of the court’s denial of his motion for correction of illegal 
sentence.  The Superior Court order denying the motion for reargument was dated 
and docketed on April 14, 2022.  Under Supreme Court Rules 6 and 11, a timely 
notice of appeal should have been filed on or before May 16, 2022. 
 
2 
(2) 
A notice of appeal must be timely filed to invoke the Court’s appellate 
jurisdiction.1  The jurisdictional defect created by the untimely filing of a notice of 
appeal cannot be excused unless the appellant can demonstrate that the delay in filing 
is attributable to court-related personnel.2 
(3) 
The Senior Court Clerk issued a notice directing Laster to show cause 
why this appeal should not be dismissed as untimely filed.  In response to the notice 
to show cause, Laster states that he timely mailed the notice of appeal, but that the 
postal service returned it for insufficient postage.  He contends that the prison 
mailroom was at fault because the mailroom staff should have weighed the mail and 
affixed the required postage and charged the difference to his prison account.  In 
response, the State explains that, for outgoing mail, prison personnel either weigh 
the mail and affix postage and charge the inmate’s account or, when an inmate 
affixes his own postage, send out the mail as prepared by the inmate, without affixing 
additional postage.  The State also submits prison mail records supporting the 
inference that Laster affixed his own postage to mail that was addressed to this Court 
on May 2, 2022. 
(4) 
Laster’s response to the notice to show cause does not provide a basis 
for excusing the untimely filing of the notice of appeal.  A notice of appeal must be 
 
1 Carr v. State, 554 A.2d 778, 779 (Del. 1989). 
2 Bey v. State, 402 A.2d 362, 363 (Del. 1979). 
 
3 
received by the Court within the applicable time period to be effective.3  
“ Unfortunately for [Laster], prison personnel are not court-related personnel, and 
Delaware has not adopted a rule similar to the federal prison mailbox rule, which 
deems a notice of appeal filed at the time it is delivered to prison authorities for 
mailing.”4  Because the record does not reflect that Laster’s failure to file a timely 
notice of appeal is attributable to court-related personnel, the appeal must be 
dismissed. 
NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED, under Supreme Court Rule 29(b), 
that the appeal is DISMISSED.  
 
 
 
 
 
BY THE COURT: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
/s/  James T. Vaughn, Jr.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Justice  
 
 
3 DEL. SUPR. CT. R. 10(a). 
4 Schafferman v. State, 2016 WL 5929953, at *1 (Del. Oct. 11, 2016).