You’re Not Supposed To Do That (Part Two of a Collection of Entry Orders in Three Acts)

State v. Lyford, 2016 VT 118 (mem.)

By Elizabeth Kruska

There’s such a thing as an interlocutory appeal. You get to do this only in certain circumstances. And to get to be able to do it, the trial court has to give permission. If the trial court gives permission at the wrong time, you get what happens here.

Ms. Lyford was charged with a crime. She filed a motion to suppress certain evidence in her case. The motion was denied, so she sought interlocutory appeal. The trial judge granted her request, and off the file went to the Vermont Supreme Court.

SCOV said, oops, this shouldn’t be here. A criminal defendant can only take interlocutory appeal on a motion to suppress if he or she has first entered a conditional guilty plea. Ms. Lyford had not done a conditional guilty plea prior to seeking permission to appeal. So, it’s dismissed, as having been improvidently granted.

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