Youngstown Daily Legal News

Man discharged from post release supervision due to trial court error

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: August 31, 2016

In the 6th District Court of Appeals, a three-judge appellate panel recently found that a man could not be placed on postrelease control after serving a prison term if he was not notified of the supervision during sentencing.

The case concerned the drug convictions of William Henry Moore, who pleaded guilty to several offenses in the Erie County Court of Common Pleas on Nov. 19, 2002.

Moore was sentenced to 12 years in prison but the trial court never addressed postrelease control.

“The only mention of Moore’s postrelease control sanction occurred during Moore’s plea hearing,” Judge Arlene Singer wrote in the opinion she authored on behalf of the court of appeals. “No mention of Moore’s sanction was made in the sentencing judgment entry dated Jan. 23, 2003.”

In 2014, Moore completed his prison sentence and, upon his release, was supervised by the Adult Parole Authority. But last year, he moved the trial court for termination of his postrelease control based on a lack of notice.

The trial court denied that motion leading to Moore’s appeal to the 6th District court, where the appellate panel determined that he can not be held under the APA’s authority. The state conceded the error.

“When sentencing a felony offender to a term of imprisonment, a trial court is required to notify the offender at the sentencing hearing about postrelease control and it is further required to incorporate that notice into its journal entry imposing sentence,” Singer wrote, citing State v. Jordan (2004-Ohio-6085).

“Unless a trial court includes postrelease control in its sentence, the Adult Parole Authority is without any authority to impose it.”

Instead, the appellate panel noted that a new sentencing hearing would be required. But, if the error is discovered after an offender served his entire prison sentence, “the convicted is not resentenced and postrelease control terminates.”

“Here, the trial court did not notify appellant of his postrelease control within its judgment entry or at his sentencing hearing,” Singer wrote. “... Therefore, the APA is without authority to impose postrelease control on Moore. His postrelease control must be terminated.”

The judgment of the Erie County Court of Common Please was reversed and Moore was ordered discharged with Presiding Judge James Jenson and Judge Thomas Osowik joining Singer to form the majority.

The case is cited State v. Moore, 2016-Ohio-5433.

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