Williams v. State

Sears, Justice.

After the Court of Appeals denied the application for discretionary appeal filed by the appellant, Gibson Williams, we granted Williams’s petition for certiorari and application for discretionary review to consider whether a trial court’s failure to conduct a presentence hearing under OCGA § 17-10-2 (a) is an error which cannot be waived and cannot be harmless, and to consider whether a direct appeal lies from the denial of a motion in the sentencing court attacking a sentence on the ground that it was entered without a presentence hearing. For the reasons that follow, we…