State v. Washington, Unpublished Decision (11-29-2002)
State v. Washington, Unpublished Decision (11-29-2002)
Opinion of the Court
{¶ 2} In September 1997, appellant entered two separate written pleas of guilty to the following two charges: (1) vandalism, a felony of the fifth degree, in violation of R.C.
{¶ 3} As part of both sentencing judgments, the trial court informed appellant that if his community control was ever revoked and he was sentenced to a jail term, the parole board could impose bad time under R.C.
{¶ 4} Appellant did not bring an appeal from either of the sentencing judgments. Six months after appellant had begun to serve his two-year community control term, the state filed motions in both cases to terminate the community control. Upon holding a hearing on this matter, the trial court issued a new judgment in each case in which it granted the motion to terminate and sentenced appellant to a nine-month prison term. This new judgment did not contain any reference to the possible imposition of either a bad time sanction or post-release control.
{¶ 5} Appellant filed timely notices of appeal from the "termination" judgments issued in the vandalism case and the domestic violence case. The two appeals were then consolidated for all purposes before this court.
{¶ 6} In his appellate brief for both appeals, appellant has not raised any issue regarding the propriety of the trial court's decision to terminate his community control. Instead, under his sole assignment of error, appellant contends that the trial court's sentencing judgments should not have referred to the possible imposition of bad time and post-release control because the underlying statutory schemes for both are unconstitutional for a number of reasons.
{¶ 7} For the following reasons, this court concludes that the constitutionality issues cannot be addressed in the context of these appeals. If appellant had wanted to contest the general propriety of the statutory schemes governing bad time and post-release control, he should have appealed the two sentencing judgments in which the references to bad time and post-release control were made. Since appellant failed to file timely appeals from the sentencing judgments, we simply lack the jurisdiction to address any issues associated with those particular judgments. Stated differently, appellant cannot challenge the validity of the sentencing judgments in appeals from the "termination" judgments. Moreover, because the judgments on the motion to terminate did not refer to the imposition of bad time and post-release control, those issues are not properly before us at this time.
{¶ 8} As an aside, this court would indicate that the procedure for the imposition of post-release control, as set forth in R.C.
{¶ 9} In reviewing sentencing judgments which have referred to the possible imposition of bad time, this court has declared such judgments to be erroneous and has remanded the cases to the trial courts so that a new sentencing judgment could be issued. See State v. Kay (Mar. 22, 2002), 11th Dist. No. 98-L-063. Since appellant did not appeal the two sentencing judgments in the underlying cases, this procedure cannot be followed in this instance. However, even under these circumstances, appellant still has a remedy. That is, if appellant is ordered to serve additional time in prison under the bad time statute, he can always seek a writ of habeas corpus to compel his immediate release.
{¶ 10} As appellant has failed to assert an issue which states a feasible basis for reversing the appealed judgments, his sole assignment of error in both appeals lacks merit. Thus, the judgments of the trial court are affirmed.
JUDITH A. CHRISTLEY, J., ROBERT A. NADER, J., concur.
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