Ohio Criminal Appeals Lawyer Blog

So said a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge to the lawyers in a murder trial as you can read by clicking here. The Eighth District Court of Appeals reversed the convictions of Arif Majid and remanded the case for a new trial because the trial record showed that a juror was clearly sleeping a number of times during trial. The Court of Appeals said the sleeping juror violated Majid's right to due process.

Ohio's Second District Court of Appeals reversed convictions for two counts of rape and seven counts of gross sexual imposition because the State never differentiated between these counts.  This was a violation of the defendant's right to Due Process of Law.  In the indictment, the charges were identical and nothing in the bill of particulars differentiated the counts.  Finally, nothing in the testimony of the complainant differentiated one count from another so convictions for those counts were reversed as you can see in the full decision by clicking here.