Ohio Criminal Appeals Lawyer Blog

The Seventh District Court of Appeals reversed a guilty plea made in the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court because it was not made knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently as you can read by clicking here. Criminal Rule 11 requires certain things of the trial judge before a guilty plea can be accepted. Criminal Rule 11(C)(1)(c) states that judges must inform defendants of the following before their plea is accepted.
1. The defendant is waiving her right to a jury trial
2. To confront witnesses against her
3. To compulsory process for favorable witnesses
4. To require the State to prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
5. And her privilege against compulsory self incrimination.
A trial judge in Mahoning County failed to comply with numbers three and four as listed above and so the Court of Appeals reversed the guilty plea and remanded the case back to the trial court.

After a defendant in Greene County (county court located in Xenia, Ohio) pleaded guilty to several counts of rape and gross sexual imposition, he was sentenced to 40 years in prison.  But the defendant was not informed that he faced mandatory prison time before he pleaded guilty.  Instead, he was informed that he would be eligible for community control sanctions if he was granted judicial release.  Since the defendant was not eligible for judicial release while serving time for the rape charges which carried mandatory prison time, Ohio's Second District Court of Appeals reversed the plea and sentence and remanded the case to the trial court as you can read by clicking here.

On remand, this defendant had his sentence cut in half as you can read here or here.

Another guilty plea reversed by Ohio's Second District Court of Appeals.  This time because the trial judge made a promise he could not fulfill.  The defendant pleaded guilty to trafficking in heroin in an amount equal to or greater than 250 grams.  This charge required that the defendant be sentenced to 10 years.  But the trial judge promised the defendant that he would be sentenced to no more than 7 years if he pleaded guilty.  He was sentenced to 7 years of mandatory prison time.  The Court of Appeals found that the guilty plea was void and remanded the case to the trial court.  Click here for the full decision.

On remand this defendant was sentenced to 6 years of NON-mandatory time.