Justia Criminal Law Opinion Summaries

Defendant appealed from the trial court's denial of his motion in arrest of judgment were he was convicted of felony murder and other crimes where the motion asserted that defendant's indictment was substantively defective because it did not set forth the essential elements of the charged offense. At issue was whether the untimely filing of a motion in arrest of judgment precluded a defendant from appealing the trial court's ruling on the motion. The court affirmed the denial of the motion and held that the untimely filing of a motion in arrest of judgment in the trial court was not a defect in appellate jurisdiction that would subject an appeal from the trial court's ruling on the motion to dismissal, as would an untimely filed notice of appeal, and that instead, the untimeliness of the motion was simply a defect that limited the trial court's authority to grant the motion.