Title: Manns v. Gansheimer

State: ohio

Issuer: Ohio Supreme Court

Document:

[Cite as Manns v. Gansheimer, 117 Ohio St.3d 251, 2008-Ohio-851.] 
 
 
MANNS, APPELLANT, v. GANSHEIMER, WARDEN, ET AL., APPELLEES. 
[Cite as Manns v. Gansheimer, 117 Ohio St.3d 251, 2008-Ohio-851.] 
Habeas corpus — Alleged sentencing errors — Adequate remedies at law — 
App.R. 12(A)(1)(a) — Judgment affirmed. 
(No. 2007-1811 ─ Submitted February 27, 2008 ─ Decided March 5, 2008.) 
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Ashtabula County, 
No. 2007-A-0017, 2007-Ohio-4221. 
__________________ 
 
Per Curiam. 
{¶ 1} This is an appeal from a judgment denying a writ of habeas corpus.  
Because the appellant had an adequate remedy at law by appeal to raise his claim 
of sentencing error, we affirm the judgment of the court of appeals. 
{¶ 2} The Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas convicted 
appellant, Michael Manns, of aggravated murder with accompanying 
specifications, ten counts of aggravated robbery, and ten counts of kidnapping.  In 
1977, the common pleas court sentenced Manns to death on his aggravated 
murder conviction and sentenced him to concurrent prison terms of seven to 25 
years on his remaining convictions. 
{¶ 3} On appeal, the Court of Appeals for Cuyahoga County affirmed 
the convictions but modified the death sentence to a term of life imprisonment, 
based on Lockett v. Ohio (1978), 438 U.S. 586, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973, 
and Bell v. Ohio (1978), 438 U.S. 637, 98 S.Ct. 2977, 57 L.Ed.2d 1010.  State v. 
Manns (Mar. 8, 1979), Cuyahoga App. No. 38526, 1979 WL 210029, *4.  In 
Lockett and Bell, the United States Supreme Court held the applicable version of 
Ohio’s death-penalty scheme unconstitutional. 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
2 
{¶ 4} In February 2007, Manns filed a petition in the Court of Appeals 
for Ashtabula County (hereinafter “court of appeals”) for a writ of habeas corpus 
to compel appellees, Lake Erie Correctional Institution Warden Rich Gansheimer 
and Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Director Terry J. Collins, 
to release him from prison because the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas 
had never resentenced him after the Court of Appeals for Cuyahoga County 
vacated his death sentence.  Appellees filed a motion for summary judgment.  In 
August 2007, the court of appeals granted appellees’ motion and entered 
judgment in favor of appellees. 
{¶ 5} In his appeal as of right, Manns asserts that the court of appeals 
erred in denying the writ of habeas corpus.  For the following reasons, however, 
the court of appeals’ judgment was proper. 
{¶ 6} First, sentencing errors are not jurisdictional and are not 
remediable in habeas corpus.  State ex rel. Sneed v. Anderson, 114 Ohio St.3d 11, 
2007-Ohio-2454, 866 N.E.2d 1084, ¶ 7.  Manns “has or had adequate remedies in 
the ordinary course of law, e.g., appeal and postconviction relief, for review of 
any alleged sentencing error.”  State ex rel. Jaffal v. Calabrese, 105 Ohio St.3d 
440, 2005-Ohio-2591, 828 N.E.2d 107, ¶ 5.  Manns could have appealed the 1979 
Court of Appeals for Cuyahoga County judgment that he now challenges by 
extraordinary writ, but he did not. 
{¶ 7} Second, as the court of appeals held, the Court of Appeals for 
Cuyahoga County was authorized to modify Manns’s death sentence to life 
imprisonment based on App.R. 12(A)(1)(a), which authorizes courts of appeals to 
“[r]eview and affirm, modify, or reverse the judgment or final order appealed.”  
Cf. Cotten v. Houk, Madison App. No. CA2003-12-041, 2004-Ohio-5823, ¶ 7 
(affirming dismissal of habeas corpus petition based on holding that Ohio 
Supreme Court was authorized to modify petitioner’s death sentence to life 
imprisonment after Lockett and Bell). 
January Term, 2008 
3 
{¶ 8} Therefore, because Manns did not establish his entitlement to the 
requested extraordinary writ of habeas corpus, we affirm the judgment of the 
Court of Appeals for Ashtabula County denying the writ. 
Judgment affirmed. 
 
MOYER, 
C.J., 
and 
PFEIFER, 
LUNDBERG 
STRATTON, 
O’CONNOR, 
O’DONNELL, LANZINGER, and CUPP, JJ., concur. 
__________________ 
 
Michael Manns, pro se. 
 
Marc Dann, Attorney General, and Jerri L. Fosnaught, Assistant Attorney 
General, for appellees. 
______________________