State v. Murray (Slip Opinion)
State v. Murray (Slip Opinion)
Dissenting Opinion
*446*131{¶ 2} In answering the certified-conflict question based on the decision in State v. Johnson ,
{¶ 3} This appeal lays bare the damage done to the finality of judgments by this court's recent approach to alleged postrelease-control errors. Murray was initially sentenced in October 2010 for an importuning conviction. He now claims that the trial court erred because it did not include in its sentencing entry the potential consequences he faced if he committed a felony while on postrelease control-namely, that in addition to a sentence for the new felony, a consecutive prison term could be imposed for the postrelease-control violation, see R.C. 2929.141(A). Murray did not appeal his 2010 conviction.
{¶ 4} In September 2011, less than a year after his conviction and while on postrelease control for that conviction, Murray was convicted of a new crime. He was sentenced to 14 months in prison for the new offense and a consecutive term of 1,617 days for the postrelease-control violation.
{¶ 5} Instead, Murray waited another five years to challenge the purported error in his 2010 sentence. In 2016, Murray filed a motion to vacate his 2011 sentence, arguing that the 2011 sentence should be set aside because of an alleged error in the imposition of postrelease control in 2010.
{¶ 6} Under the traditional view of void and voidable sentences, any error in failing to include notification about R.C. 2929.141 penalties would have been nonjurisdictional and reviewable only on direct appeal. State v. Grimes ,
{¶ 7} This case underlines the havoc that approach has wrought. Despite having failed to file a direct appeal from his 2010 sentence and despite having failed to file a direct appeal from his 2011 sentence, Murray gets yet another bite of the apple. When postrelease control is in play, there is apparently no such thing as a final judgment. The door to appeal is always open.
*448{¶ 8} Our inconsistent jurisprudence on void versus voidable sentences has not *132gone unnoticed by appellate courts. See State v. Straley ,
{¶ 9} Rather than continuing down this wrong road, this court ought to admit that it made a mistake when it concocted the notion that a postrelease-control error will make a sentence void. Doing so would restore finality and certainty to what's become an unnecessarily complicated area of criminal sentencing.
French, J., concurs in the foregoing opinion.
This court has accepted the state's appeal in Straley . See
Opinion of the Court
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The STATE of Ohio, Appellee, v. MURRAY, Appellant.
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Court of appeals' judgment affirmed on authority of State v. Johnson.