State v. Henderson

Citations

• 2025 Ohio 2798

Syllabus

POSTCONVICTION RELIEF — SERIOUS MENTAL ILLNESS — EVALUATION: The common pleas court erroneously dismissed defendant's petition for postconviction relief based on Ohio's serious-mental-illness law, see R.C. 2909.025, where the record lacked competent, credible evidence to support the court's finding that defendant had knowingly refused to submit to a court-ordered serious-mental-illness evaluation, which effectively led to defendant waiving his right to seek the commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment: the mental-health professional who was conducting the evaluation was not allowed to speak with defendant and therefore there was no evidence that defendant was informed that the evaluator was at the prison to conduct the court-ordered evaluation or of the consequences for not submitting to the evaluation.