State v. Todd, 369 N.C. 707 (Jun. 9, 2017)

The Supreme Court held that it had jurisdiction to decide an appeal from a divided decision of the Court of Appeals reversing a trial court’s ruling denying a MAR. The defendant was convicted of armed robbery. He was unsuccessful on his direct appeal. The defendant then filed an MAR arguing that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction and that his appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to raise this claim on appeal. The trial court denied the defendant’s MAR. A divided Court of Appeals reversed, with instructions to grant the MAR and vacate the conviction. The Supreme Court noted that G.S. 7A-30(2) provides an automatic right of appeal based on a dissent at the Court of Appeals. However, that automatic right of appeal is limited by G.S. 7A-28, which states that decisions of the Court of Appeals upon review of G.S. 15A-1415 MARs (MARs by the defendant filed more than 10 days after entry of judgment) are final and not subject to further review. However, the supervisory authority granted to the court by Article IV, Section 12 of the North Carolina Constitution gave the court a restriction to hear the appeal.