The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the 1994 felony murder conviction against David Lee Morgan but warned about an "extraordinary" 17-year delay in resolving his motion for new trial.
Morgan was convicted of fatally stabbing Valencia Wright in February 1993 because, he told police, she was leaving him to return to her husband.
In an opinion published Monday, the court criticized the delays in getting a lawyer for Morgan to pursue his appeals and noted Morgan had written letters to the clerk's office and to the State Bar of Georgia's Consumer Assistance Program seeking help.
In August 2007, during a status conference requested by the Fulton County District Attorney's Office, the trial judge said it appeared that "somehow or other the ball got dropped as far as appointment [of appellate counsel] was concerned" and the case "dropped through the cracks," said the ruling, written by Justice David Nahmias.
Even so, Nahmias noted, it took another year for the court to appoint Morgan an appellate lawyer. "The case then slowly got back on track, although it still took more than two years to resolve the motion for new trial," the opinion said.
Such extraordinary delays put at risk the rights of defendants and crime victims and the validity of convictions, Nahmias wrote, noting it is the duty of all involved in the criminal justice system to ensure post-conviction motions are filed, litigated and decided without unnecessary delay.
"That duty unfortunately was not fulfilled in this case," Nahmias wrote.
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