State v. Smith

Citations

• 2020 Ohio 1370

Syllabus

POSTCONVICTION — JURISDICTION — DUE PROCESS —INEFFECTIVE COUNSEL : The common pleas court properly denied relief without an evidentiary hearing on the ineffective-counsel and due-process claims presented in the petition under R.C. 2953.21 et seq. for postconviction relief, because the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the claims: the postconviction statutes did not confer jurisdiction, because the petition was not timely filed, R.C. 2953.21(A)(2), because Ohio does not recognize a prison-mailbox rule that would operate to preclude dismissal of the petition as untimely, and because the petition did not satisfy the R.C. 2953.23 jurisdictional requirements for entertaining a late petition and the claims were not subject to correction under the jurisdiction to correct a void judgment, when the claims, even if demonstrated, would not have rendered the petitioner's convictions void. The common pleas court erred in overruling petitioner's motions for leave to amend his late postconviction petition, filed before the state filed its memorandum in opposition to the petition, R.C. 2953.21(G)(2) but the error did not compel reversal of the judgment denying postconviction relief, because the late postconviction petition was subject to dismissal for lack of jurisdiction.