Latest Case: State v. Straley (Criminal Law)

Taking Stock: A Review of Justice Stevens’s Last Book and an Appreciation of His Extraordinary Service on the Supreme Court

RODGER CITRON

Rodger D. Citron, the Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship and a Professor of Law at Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, comments on the late Justice John Paul Stevens’s last book, The Making of a Justice: Reflections on My First 94 Years. Citron laments that, in his view, the memoir is too long yet does not say enough, but he lauds the justice for his outstanding service on the Supreme Court.

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State v. Straley

Citation: 2019-Ohio-5206

Opinion Date: December 19, 2019

Judge: Judith L. French

Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeals and reinstated the trial court's judgment denying Defendant's motion to withdraw his guilty plea, holding that Defendant did not suffer a manifest injustice when the trial court failed to tell him during his Crim.R. 11 plea colloquy that he would be subject to mandatory prison sentences for his second-degree felony sexual battery convictions. Defendant pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree felony sexual battery and other offenses. After a plea colloquy in which the trial court told Defendant that none of his prison sentences were mandatory the trial court accepted Defendant's guilty plea and imposed an agreed-upon sentence. Defendant later filed a postsentencing motion to withdraw his guilty plea, arguing that the trial court erred by imposing mandatory sentences without first telling him that they were mandatory. The trial court denied the motion. The court of appeals reversed, concluding that Defendant should be permitted to withdraw his guilty plea. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the trial court's error in failing to tell Defendant that part of his sentence would be mandatory did not prejudice Defendant.