Case Title: State ex rel. Robinson v. Fender

Citation: 2022-Ohio-3701

Docket Number: 2022-0279

State: ohio

Court: Ohio Supreme Court

Date: 2022-10-19T00:00:00Z

Document:
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as State 
ex rel. Robinson v. Fender, Slip Opinion No. 2022-Ohio-3701.] 
 
 
 
 
NOTICE 
This slip opinion is subject to formal revision before it is published in an 
advance sheet of the Ohio Official Reports.  Readers are requested to 
promptly notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of Ohio, 65 
South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, of any typographical or other 
formal errors in the opinion, in order that corrections may be made before 
the opinion is published. 
 
 
SLIP OPINION NO. 2022-OHIO-3701 
THE STATE EX REL. ROBINSON, APPELLANT, v. FENDER, WARDEN, APPELLEE. 
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 
may be cited as State ex rel. Robinson v. Fender, Slip Opinion No.  
2022-Ohio-3701.] 
Habeas corpus—Inmate has been transferred to a prison not located in the district 
in which he filed his petition—Court of appeals’ judgment dismissing 
petition for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted 
affirmed. 
(No. 2022-0279—Submitted August 2, 2022—Decided October 19, 2022.) 
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Trumbull County, No. 2021-T-0048, 
2022-Ohio-580. 
________________ 
 
Per Curiam. 
{¶ 1} Appellant, Jackie N. Robinson, appeals the judgment of the Eleventh 
District Court of Appeals dismissing his petition for a writ of habeas corpus against 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
 
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appellee, Douglas Fender, warden of the Lake Erie Correctional Institution.  We 
affirm. 
{¶ 2} Robinson is serving an aggregate prison term of 12 to 56 years for 
several criminal convictions dating back to 1976.  Since his incarceration in 1976, 
Robinson has been paroled, has reoffended, and has been returned to prison for new 
felonies several times. 
{¶ 3} In 2021, Robinson filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the 
Eleventh District.  He alleged that his prison term expired on October 11, 2011, and 
that he was entitled to immediate release. 
{¶ 4} The warden filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon 
which relief can be granted.  In February 2022, the Eleventh District granted the 
warden’s motion, holding that it lacked jurisdiction to review the merits of 
Robinson’s petition because he had been transferred to Mansfield Correctional 
Institution in Richland County while the case was pending. 
{¶ 5} Under R.C. 2725.03, “[i]f a person restrained of his liberty is an 
inmate of a state * * * correctional institution, the location of which is fixed by 
statute and at the time is in the custody of the officers of the institution, no court or 
judge other than the courts or judges of the county in which the institution is located 
has jurisdiction to issue or determine a writ of habeas corpus for his production or 
discharge.”  We have strictly construed this statutory language in previous cases.  
See Brown v. Hall, 123 Ohio St.3d 381, 2009-Ohio-5592, 916 N.E.2d 807, ¶ 1 
(holding that “[e]ven though [the] petition [for a writ of habeas corpus] reached the 
same district court of appeals it would have had it been filed in the correct county, 
the court of appeals still lacked jurisdiction to determine the merits”); Goudlock v. 
Voorhies, 119 Ohio St.3d 398, 2008-Ohio-4787, 894 N.E.2d 692, ¶ 17-18 
(affirming dismissal of habeas corpus petition not filed in the county where inmate 
was confined). 
January Term, 2022 
 
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{¶ 6} Robinson does not dispute that he has been transferred to the 
Mansfield Correctional Institution in Richland County, which is in the Fifth 
District.  Thus, the court of appeals correctly dismissed his petition, and we affirm 
the court’s judgment.  We also deny as moot the warden’s motion to strike 
Robinson’s merit brief. 
Judgment affirmed. 
O’CONNOR, C.J., and KENNEDY, FISCHER, DEWINE, DONNELLY, STEWART, 
and BRUNNER, JJ., concur. 
_________________ 
Jackie N. Robinson, pro se. 
Dave Yost, Attorney General, and Jerri L. Fosnaught, Assistant Attorney 
General, for appellee. 
_________________