Lewis v. McDougal

Benham, Justice.

Sean Darin McDougal was convicted of rape and kidnapping with bodily injury in 1997 and his conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals. McDougal v. State, 239 Ga. App. 808 (521 SE2d 458) (1999). He filed a petition for the writ of habeas corpus and the habeas corpus court granted it on two grounds: lack of subject matter jurisdiction by the trial court because of an insufficient designation of a magistrate to preside over McDougal’s trial in superior court, and ineffective assistance of appellate counsel for refusing to raise both the subject matter jurisdiction issue and…