Simmons v. State

Benham, Justice.

Appellant Franklin Lamar Simmons, convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1972, filed a motion for out-of-time appeal in May 2002 in which he asserted, among other things, that he had lost his right to direct appeal because trial counsel had coerced him into withdrawing a timely-filed motion for new trial. The trial court denied the motion for out-of-time appeal, and Case No. S03A0014 is appellant’s direct appeal 2 from the denial of his motion. In Case No. S03A0013, appellant seeks review of the trial court’s order limiting the appellate record in Case No.…