State v. Williams

Citations

• 2024 Ohio 1148

Syllabus

POSTCONVICTION — R.C. 2953.23: The common pleas court did not err by dismissing defendant's successive petition for postconviction relief where defendant could not meet the jurisdictional requirements of R.C. 2953.23: defendant was not unavoidably prevented from discovering the facts underlying his postconviction claims where he did not need access to his case file to know that his trial counsel had failed to call the victims' mother's boyfriend as a witness. The trial court's failure to serve defendant with the judgment entry denying his first petition for postconviction relief did not prevent defendant from exercising his right to appeal where the time to appeal that judgment had been tolled and where defendant actually filed a timely notice of appeal from the judgment. The common pleas court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant's first petition for postconviction relief where the postconviction claims were either barred by res judicata or did not present substantive grounds for relief.