Court Opinion

ID: 9569944
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:18:48.166919+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:04:20.407597
License: Public Domain

JACKSON, Judge,
concurring in part, dissenting in part.
For the reasons stated below, I must respectfully dissent from the Court’s decision to address defendant’s claim that his guilty pleas were based on an insufficient factual basis. I concur, however, in the remaining four issues presented.
Because I believe that defendant did not petition the Court properly for writ of certiorari, I would deny defendant’s petition. North Carolina General Statutes, section 15A-1444 provides that
the defendant is not entitled to appellate review as a matter of right when he has entered a plea of guilty or no contest to a criminal charge in the superior court, but he may petition the appellate division for review by writ of certiorari.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1444(e) (2007). However, petitions for writ of certiorari are constrained by our Rules of Appellate Procedure. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1444 cmt. (2007) (“[Discretionary review is necessarily controlled by the rules of the appellate division”). The Court’s discretion to issue a writ of certiorari is limited to
appropriate circumstances . . . when the right to prosecute an appeal has been lost by failure to take timely action, or when no right of appeal from an interlocutory order exists, or for review pursuant to G.S. 15A-1422(c)(3) of an order of the trial court denying a motion for appropriate relief.
N.C. R. App. P. 21(a)(1) (2007). See, e.g., State v. Hadden, 175 N.C. App. 492, 497, 624 S.E.2d 417, 420 (2006); State v. Pimental, 153 N.C. App. 69, 76-77, 568 S.E.2d 867, 872 (2002). The petition should be filed with the clerk of the Court of Appeals and must include
a statement of the facts necessary to an understanding of the issues presented by the application; a statement of the reasons why the writ should issue; and certified copies of the judgment, order or opinion or parts of the record which may be essential to an understanding of the matters set forth in the petition.
N.C. R. App. P. 21(c) (2007).
*731In the instant case, defendant simply noted in his brief that “in the event this Court determines that [defendant] does not have an appeal as of right from his guilty plea... [defendant] requests that this Court accept this as a petition for certiorari].]” Furthermore, defendant’s appeal does not conform to the requirements of Rule 21. As I would deny defendant’s petition, I must dissent.