Bennett v. State

Sears, Justice.

The following question is raised by the grant of certiorari in this case: Is the State precluded from seeking to set aside a 1991 judgment granting the appellant, Ralph Bennett, a new trial because the State urged the trial court to grant Bennett’s extraordinary motion for new trial and then failed to appeal from the judgment doing so? The answer to this question is yes. The Court of Appeals’ ruling to the contrary is, therefore, reversed.

In 1989, Bennett pled guilty to theft of mislaid property. The sentencing court, Judge Robert James, imposed a ten-year probated sentence…