Case Title: State ex rel. Maxwell v. Spicer

Citation: 2004-Ohio-6594

Docket Number: 20041497

State: ohio

Court: Ohio Supreme Court

Date: 2004-12-15T00:00:00Z

Document:
[Cite as State ex rel. Maxwell v. Spicer, 104 Ohio St.3d 344, 2004-Ohio-6594.] 
 
 
THE STATE EX REL. MAXWELL, APPELLANT, v.  SPICER, APPELLEE. 
[Cite as State ex rel. Maxwell v. Spicer, 104 Ohio St.3d 344, 2004-Ohio-6594.] 
Criminal law – Sentencing – Defendant not entitled to resentencing under State v. 
Comer where conviction was final before Comer was decided. 
(No. 2004-1497 — Submitted November 16, 2004 — Decided December 15, 
2004.) 
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Summit County, No. 22160. 
____________________ 
 
Per Curiam. 
{¶ 1} In 2000, the Summit County Court of Common Pleas convicted 
appellant, Thomas Maxwell, of rape and gross sexual imposition, and classified 
him as a habitual sex offender.  The common pleas court sentenced him to prison. 
{¶ 2} In June 2004, Maxwell filed a petition in the Court of Appeals for 
Summit County for a writ of mandamus to compel appellee, Judge Mary F. Spicer 
of the common pleas court, to vacate his sentence and resentence him in 
accordance with applicable law.  Maxwell claimed that Judge Spicer did not make 
the findings required by State v. Comer, 99 Ohio St.3d 463, 2003-Ohio-4165, 793 
N.E.2d 473, paragraphs one and two of the syllabus.  Judge Spicer moved to 
dismiss the petition. 
{¶ 3} On July 29, 2004, the court of appeals granted Judge Spicer’s 
motion and dismissed Maxwell’s petition. 
{¶ 4} This cause is now before the court upon Maxwell’s appeal as of 
right. 
{¶ 5} We affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.  Maxwell is not 
entitled to the retroactive application of Comer to his convictions, which had 
become final before Comer was decided.  See Ali v. State, 104 Ohio St.3d 328, 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
2 
2004-Ohio-6592, 819 N.E.2d 687, ¶ 6, and cases cited therein.  Moreover, 
Maxwell waived the new claims he attempts to raise on appeal because he did not 
raise them in his petition or seek leave to amend his petition to include these 
claims.  See State ex rel. Scruggs v. Sadler, 102 Ohio St.3d 160, 2004-Ohio-2054, 
807 N.E.2d 357, ¶ 6.  Therefore, the court of appeals properly dismissed 
Maxwell’s mandamus petition. 
Judgment affirmed. 
 
MOYER, C.J., RESNICK, F.E. SWEENEY, PFEIFER, LUNDBERG STRATTON, 
O’CONNOR and O’DONNELL, JJ., concur. 
_________________ 
 
Thomas Maxwell, pro se. 
 
Sherri Bevan Walsh, Summit County Prosecuting Attorney, and Richard 
S. Kasay, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee. 
____________________________