Title: Keith v. Kelley

State: ohio

Issuer: Ohio Supreme Court

Document:

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as 
Keith v. Kelley, Slip Opinion No. 2010-Ohio-1807.] 
 
 
 
 
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. 2010-OHIO-1807 
KEITH, APPELLANT, v. KELLEY, WARDEN, APPELLEE. 
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 
may be cited as Keith v. Kelley, Slip Opinion No. 2010-Ohio-1807.] 
Appeal from dismissal of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus — Res judicata 
bars petitioner from filing a successive habeas corpus petition — 
Adequate remedy at law — Judgment affirmed. 
(No. 2010-0037 ─ Submitted April 20, 2010 ─ Decided April 28, 2010.) 
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Trumbull County, 
No. 2009-T-0056, 2009-Ohio-6711. 
__________________ 
 
Per Curiam. 
{¶ 1} We affirm the judgment dismissing the petition of appellant, 
Jeffrey C. Keith, for a writ of habeas corpus.  Res judicata bars Keith from filing a 
successive habeas corpus petition insofar as he raises claims that he either raised 
or could have raised in his previous petition.  Amstutz v. Eberlin, 119 Ohio St.3d 
421, 2008-Ohio-4538, 894 N.E.2d 1219, ¶ 7; Keith v. Bobby, 117 Ohio St.3d 470, 
2008-Ohio-1443, 884 N.E.2d 1067.  Moreover, as the court of appeals held, 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
2 
 
Keith’s initial sentence is not void and has not expired, and he has or had an 
adequate remedy by appeal to raise his claims that the trial court judges were 
improperly assigned to his criminal cases.  See Keith, at ¶ 12, 14. 
Judgment affirmed. 
 
PFEIFER, 
ACTING 
C.J., 
and 
LUNDBERG 
STRATTON, 
O’CONNOR, 
O’DONNELL, LANZINGER, and CUPP, JJ., concur. 
 
The late CHIEF JUSTICE THOMAS J. MOYER did not participate in the 
decision in this case. 
__________________ 
 
Jeffrey C. Keith, pro se. 
 
Richard Cordray, Attorney General, and M. Scott Criss, Assistant 
Attorney General, for appellee. 
__________________