MT. VERNON – The Fifth District Appellate Court recently agreed with the Office of the State Appellate Defender (OSAD) in dismissing a man's motion for a reduced sentence after he had agreed to plead guilty to aggravated arson.
In the March 20 ruling, the appellate court granted the OSAD leave to withdraw as counsel for Nathaniel Johnson in the appeal that the court said lacked merit.
Johnson filed the appeal after the St. Clair County Circuit Court denied his motion for leave to file a successive petition for postconviction relief and denied his amended motion to reduce the sentence he received after pleading guilty to aggravated arson.
Johnson was charged with arson and murder in a 2003 house fire that killed his 10-year-old stepson who was inside, court filings said. Johnson denied intentionally setting the fire and pleaded guilty to aggravated arson to help bring the child’s family peace, according to the court filing. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison with credit for time served and the court dismissed the first-degree murder charge.
The OSAD was slated to defend Johnson in his appeal but said the appeal “lacks merit” and filed its own motion to withdraw as counsel.
“This court has concluded that the instant appeal does indeed lack merit,” the court said as it granted approval for OSAD to withdraw as Johnson’s legal counsel for the appeal.
Regarding Johnson's postconviction petition, the appellate court agreed with the lower court that Johnson didn’t properly display “an objective factor that impeded his ability to raise his specific claim during his initial postconviction proceedings … that he had failed to demonstrate cause.”
Justice James R. Moore wrote the ruling with Justices David K. Overstreet and Melissa A. Chapman concurring.