The Honorable Supreme Court met pursuant to adjournment.
The following order was passed.
Floyd Wayne Williams' emergency motion for interlocutory appeal is hereby granted. The special circumstances presented by the current posture of this death penalty case make it necessary for this Court to exercise interim jurisdiction under the rationale of Waldrip v. Head, 272 Ga. 572, 576 (2000). Appellant's notice of appeal must be filed in the trial court within ten days of the date shown above.
The parties should address the following question:
Did the trial court err in appointing counsel of its choosing for Williams when Williams was already being represented by counsel from the Multi-County Public Defender's Office and had expressed his desire to retain that counsel?
The proceedings below in the Clayton County Superior Court are hereby stayed pending the outcome of this interlocutory appeal.
All the Justices concur, except Carley and Hines, JJ., who dissent.
I certify that the above is a true extract from the minutes of the Supreme Court of Georgia. Witness my signature and the seal of said court hereto affixed the day and year last above written.
CARLEY, Justice, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent to the majority's decision to consider appellant's motion as an interlocutory appeal and then grant the same. The trial court refused to grant a certificate of immediate review, so we have no jurisdiction to consider this as an application for interlocutory appeal pursuant to OCGA § 5-6-34. We cannot ignore the mandates of the statute for the reason set forth in my dissent in Waldrip v. Head, 272 Ga. 572, 580 ( 532 S.E.2d 380) (2000).
I am authorized to state that Justice Hines joins in this dissent.