Case Title: Jury v. Miller

Citation: 2016-Ohio-3044

Docket Number: 2015-1339

State: ohio

Court: Ohio Supreme Court

Date: 2016-05-19T00:00:00Z

Document:
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as Jury 
v. Miller, Slip Opinion No. 2016-Ohio-3044.] 
 
 
 
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. 2016-OHIO-3044 
JURY, APPELLANT, v. MILLER, WARDEN, APPELLEE. 
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 
may be cited as Jury v. Miller, Slip Opinion No. 2016-Ohio-3044.] 
Habeas corpus—Petitioner had adequate remedy by way of direct appeal to 
challenge his convictions—Court of appeals’ dismissal of petition affirmed. 
(No. 2015-1339—Submitted February 23, 2016—Decided May 19, 2016.) 
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Belmont County, 
No. 15 BE 33, 2015-Ohio-2998. 
________________ 
 
Per Curiam. 
{¶ 1} We affirm the judgment of the Seventh District Court of Appeals 
dismissing the petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by appellant, Brian Jury.  
That court correctly concluded that Jury’s petition failed to state a claim for which 
a writ of habeas corpus could issue. 
 
 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
 
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Facts 
{¶ 2} Jury is currently serving a 36-year sentence at the Belmont 
Correctional Institution, having been convicted in 2014 of kidnapping, felonious 
assault, and two counts of rape in Erie County.  The court of appeals affirmed Jury’s 
convictions and sentence on direct appeal.  State v. Jury, 6th Dist. Erie No. E-14-
100, 2016-Ohio-2663. 
{¶ 3} Jury filed this original action for a writ of habeas corpus in the 
Seventh District Court of Appeals in May 2015.  Jury contends that he was not 
served with an arrest warrant or initial charging papers prior to his allegedly 
unlawful arrest and thus, that the Erie County Court of Common Pleas had no 
jurisdiction to convict and sentence him.  In dismissing his petition, the court of 
appeals ruled that a challenge to the sufficiency or validity of an indictment is not 
cognizable in habeas corpus.  2015-Ohio-2998, ¶ 4 (7th Dist.), citing Luna v. 
Russell, 70 Ohio St.3d 561, 562, 639 N.E.2d 1168 (1994).  It also noted that Jury 
possesses an adequate remedy at law, “namely: to raise this issue in his pending 
direct appeal.”  Id., citing State ex rel. Jackson v. Allen, 65 Ohio St.3d 37, 599 
N.E.2d 696 (1992). 
Analysis 
{¶ 4} Habeas corpus is not available to challenge the validity or sufficiency 
of a charging instrument.  Shroyer v. Banks, 123 Ohio St.3d 88, 2009-Ohio-4080, 
914 N.E.2d 368, ¶ 1.  “The manner by which an accused is charged with a crime is 
procedural rather than jurisdictional, and after a conviction for crimes charged in 
an indictment, the judgment binds the defendant for the crime for which he was 
convicted.”  Orr v. Mack, 83 Ohio St.3d 429, 430, 700 N.E.2d 590 (1998). 
{¶ 5} Jury was charged with the criminal offenses of which he was 
convicted by an indictment issued by the Erie County Grand Jury, and as the court 
of appeals held, he had an adequate remedy at law by way of direct appeal to 
challenge his convictions by raising the sufficiency of that indictment. 
January Term, 2016 
 
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{¶ 6} We therefore affirm the judgment of the court of appeals. 
Judgment affirmed. 
O’CONNOR, C.J., and PFEIFER, O’DONNELL, LANZINGER, KENNEDY, 
FRENCH, and O’NEILL, JJ., concur. 
_________________ 
Brian Jury, pro se. 
Michael DeWine, Attorney General, and Paul Kerridge, Assistant Attorney 
General, for appellee. 
_________________