Case Title: State ex rel. Beaver v. Konteh

Citation: 1998-Ohio-295

Docket Number: 19981285

State: ohio

Court: Ohio Supreme Court

Date: 1998-11-10T00:00:00Z

Document:
THE STATE EX REL. BEAVER, APPELLANT, v. KONTEH, WARDEN, APPELLEE. 
[Cite as State ex rel. Beaver v. Konteh (1998), 83 Ohio St.3d 519.] 
Mandamus to compel relator’s immediate release from Trumbull Correctional 
Institution — Mandamus action properly dismissed, when. 
(No. 98-1285 — Submitted October 13, 1998 — Decided November 10, 1998.) 
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Trumbull County, No. 98-T-0073. 
 
In 1995, a grand jury indicted appellant, Richard Darnell Beaver, on a 
charge of murder and an accompanying firearm specification.  At Beaver’s jury 
trial, the trial court instructed the jury on felonious assault as a lesser included 
offense to the charged offense of murder.  The jury found Beaver not guilty of 
murder but could not reach a verdict on the felonious assault charge.  The common 
pleas court later retried Beaver on the felonious assault charge.  Following the 
second trial, Beaver was convicted of felonious assault and the firearm 
specification and was sentenced to prison. 
 
On appeal, the court of appeals affirmed Beaver’s conviction and sentence.  
State v. Beaver (1997), 119 Ohio App.3d 385, 695 N.E.2d 332.  The court of 
appeals rejected Beaver’s claim that the felonious assault instruction in his first 
trial was unwarranted because felonious assault is not a lesser included offense of 
murder.  The court of appeals concluded that because Beaver’s trial counsel 
requested the instruction on felonious assault as a lesser included offense of 
murder, Beaver invited any error by the trial court.  We denied Beaver’s 
discretionary appeal.  State v. Beaver (1997), 79 Ohio St.3d 1504, 684 N.E.2d 88. 
 
In April 1998, Beaver filed a petition in the court of appeals for a writ of 
habeas corpus to compel his immediate release from prison.  Beaver claimed 
entitlement to the writ because his grand jury was not properly selected, he was 
never indicted for felonious assault, felonious assault is not a lesser included 
 
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offense of murder, and double jeopardy precluded his second trial.  The court of 
appeals granted the Civ.R. 12(B)(6) motion of appellee, Trumbull Correctional 
Institution Warden Khelleh Konteh, and dismissed Beaver’s habeas corpus 
petition. 
 
This cause is now before the court upon an appeal as of right. 
__________________ 
 
Richard Darnell Beaver, pro se. 
 
Betty D. Montgomery, Attorney General, and Karen L. Killian, Assistant 
Attorney General, for appellee. 
__________________ 
 
Per Curiam.  Beaver asserts that the court of appeals erred in dismissing his 
habeas corpus petition.  For the reasons that follow, however, Beaver’s 
contentions lack merit. 
 
First, Beaver’s claim concerning the grand jury selection process attacks the 
validity and sufficiency of his indictment and is nonjurisdictional.  Thornton v. 
Russell (1998), 82 Ohio St.3d 93, 94, 694 N.E.2d 464, 465; State ex rel. Beaucamp 
v. Lazaroff (1997), 77 Ohio St.3d 237, 238, 673 N.E.2d 1273, 1274. 
 
Second, as the court of appeals concluded in Beaver’s direct appeal, Beaver 
invited any error arising from the felonious assault charge because his trial counsel 
requested a jury instruction on that charge.1  See State v. Keenan (1998), 81 Ohio 
St.3d 133, 144, 689 N.E.2d 929, 942.  Under the invited-error doctrine, a party 
will not be permitted to take advantage of an error that he himself invited or 
induced the trial court to make.  State ex rel. The V Cos. v. Marshall (1998), 81 
Ohio St.3d 467, 471, 692 N.E.2d 198, 202; cf. Beaucamp, 77 Ohio St.3d at 238, 
673 N.E.2d at 1274-1275, and Stacy v. Van Coren (1969), 18 Ohio St.2d 188, 189, 
47 O.O.2d 397, 398, 248 N.E.2d 603, 604, in which we held that a plea of guilty to 
 
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an uncharged offense waives the right to an indictment on that offense, thereby 
precluding issuance of a writ of habeas corpus. 
 
Third, Beaver’s claims of double jeopardy and erroneous jury instructions 
are not cognizable in habeas corpus.  Borsick v. State (1995), 73 Ohio St.3d 258, 
259, 652 N.E.2d 951, 952; State ex rel. Richard v. Seidner (1996), 76 Ohio St.3d 
149, 152, 666 N.E.2d 1134, 1136. 
 
Finally, the fact that Beaver has already invoked alternate remedies, e.g., 
appeal and postconviction relief, to raise some of these same issues does not 
entitle him to extraordinary relief.  See State ex rel. Sampson v. Parrott (1998), 82 
Ohio St.3d 92, 93, 694 N.E.2d 463. 
 
Based on the foregoing, we affirm the judgment of the court of appeals. 
Judgment affirmed. 
 
MOYER, C.J., DOUGLAS, RESNICK, F.E. SWEENEY, PFEIFER, COOK and 
LUNDBERG STRATTON, JJ., concur. 
FOOTNOTE: 
1. 
Whether felonious assault is a lesser included offense of murder or 
attempted murder has not yet been resolved.  See, e.g., State v. Williams (1998), 81 
Ohio St.3d 1262, 1262-1263, 693 N.E.2d 282 (Cook, J., dissenting).