Title: State ex rel. Jackson v. Watson

State: ohio

Issuer: Ohio Supreme Court

Document:

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as State 
ex rel. Jackson v. Watson, Slip Opinion No. 2023-Ohio-xxxx.] 
 
 
 
 
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. 2023-OHIO-401 
THE STATE EX REL. JACKSON, APPELLANT, v. WATSON, SUPERINTENDENT, ET 
AL., APPELLEES. 
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 
may be cited as State ex rel. Jackson v. Watson, Slip Opinion No.  
2023-Ohio-401.] 
Habeas corpus—Inmate failed to comply with R.C. 2725.04(D), and he has not 
served his maximum prison sentence—Court of appeals’ judgment 
dismissing petition affirmed. 
(No. 2022-0416—Submitted January 10, 2023—Decided February 14, 2023.) 
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Marion County, No. 9-22-01. 
__________________ 
Per Curiam. 
{¶ 1} While incarcerated at North Central Correctional Complex, appellant, 
Gregory L. Jackson, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus against Warden 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
 
 
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Tom Watson.  Jackson appeals the court of appeals’ dismissal of his petition.  We 
affirm.1 
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND 
{¶ 2} Jackson pleaded guilty to murder in the Allen County Court of 
Common Pleas in October 1990 and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.  
Jackson was released on parole in August 2010. 
{¶ 3} Jackson reoffended after his release.  In March 2012, Jackson was 
convicted in the Richland County Court of Common Pleas of drug possession and 
having weapons while under a disability.  The trial court sentenced Jackson to an 
aggregate term of eight years in prison.  Jackson alleges that by operation of law, 
his eight-year sentence ran concurrently with the sentence he resumed serving for 
his 1990 murder conviction. 
{¶ 4} Before his eight-year sentence expired, Jackson filed a motion for jail-
time credit in the Richland County trial court.  Jackson asked that the period from 
August 17, 2011, to his sentencing date of March 7, 2012, be credited as time served 
on his sentence.  The trial court denied Jackson credit for the requested period, 
finding that he was entitled to only three days of jail-time credit, for August 17 
through August 19, 2011.  The court reasoned that from August 19, 2011, to March 
7, 2012, Jackson was serving time solely on his sentence for murder, following the 
revocation of his parole, and therefore that time could not be credited toward his 
later sentence. 
{¶ 5} Jackson’s eight-year sentence for the Richland County convictions 
expired in March 2020.  As to the sentence for his murder conviction, the parole 
board denied Jackson release from prison. 
 
1. During the pendency of this appeal, Jackson was transferred to the Belmont Correctional 
Institution, at which David Gray is the warden.  We sua sponte join Gray as an appellee in this case.  
See Humphrey v. Bracy, 166 Ohio St.3d 334, 2021-Ohio-3836, 185 N.E.3d 1045, ¶ 1.   
January Term, 2023 
 
 
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{¶ 6} Jackson filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Third District 
Court of Appeals in January 2022.  He sought immediate release from prison, 
arguing that his sentences have expired.  Watson filed a motion for summary 
judgment in the court of appeals, which Jackson opposed.  The court of appeals 
granted Watson’s motion and denied the writ.  Jackson appealed to this court as of 
right. 
ANALYSIS 
{¶ 7} Generally, a writ of habeas corpus is available only when the 
petitioner’s maximum sentence has expired and he is being held unlawfully, 
Leyman v. Bradshaw, 146 Ohio St.3d 522, 2016-Ohio-1093, 59 N.E.3d 1236, ¶ 8, 
or when the sentencing court patently and unambiguously lacked subject-matter 
jurisdiction, Stever v. Wainwright, 160 Ohio St.3d 139, 2020-Ohio-1452, 154 
N.E.3d 55, ¶ 8.  Habeas corpus is not available when the petitioner has an adequate 
remedy in the ordinary course of law, unless the trial court’s judgment is void for 
lack of jurisdiction.  State ex rel. Davis v. Turner, 164 Ohio St.3d 395, 2021-Ohio-
1771, 172 N.E.3d 1026, ¶ 8.  This court reviews de novo a court of appeals’ decision 
granting summary judgment in a habeas corpus action.  State ex rel. Shafer v. 
Wainwright, 156 Ohio St.3d 559, 2019-Ohio-1828, 130 N.E.3d 268, ¶ 7. 
{¶ 8} The court of appeals properly granted summary judgment.  First, 
Jackson did not comply with R.C. 2725.04(D), which requires a habeas petitioner 
to attach “[a] copy of the commitment or cause of detention of such person * * * if 
it can be procured without impairing the efficiency of the remedy.”  A petitioner’s 
failure to include complete records of his incarcerations and releases is fatal to his 
habeas petition.  State ex rel. Miller v. May, 161 Ohio St.3d 8, 2020-Ohio-3248, 
160 N.E.3d 707, ¶ 8-9.  As the court of appeals correctly noted in this case, Jackson 
failed to include any document related to the revocation of his parole in connection 
with the Allen County conviction.  This defect alone was a valid basis to dismiss 
Jackson’s petition. 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
 
 
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{¶ 9} Even if Jackson had complied with R.C. 2725.04(D), he would not be 
entitled to release.  Jackson contends that he is unlawfully detained because he has 
fully served his sentences for both the Allen County and Richland County 
convictions.  Even though the Allen County sentence has a maximum term of life 
in prison, Jackson argues that the Richland County court declared that sentence to 
have “expired” as of March 7, 2012, in its entry deciding Jackson’s motion for jail-
time credit.  Specifically, Jackson points to this passage of the trial court’s entry: 
 
The defendant was sentenced in this case on March 7, 2012, 
which is the same date the Allen County time expired as he would 
have received credit on his Allen County conviction for the period 
of time from August 19, 2011, through March 7, 2012.  Therefore, 
this case could not have run concurrent to his Allen County case as 
that sentence expired on March 7, 2012, and defendant is not 
entitled to jail time credit on this case for those days as he received 
credit for them on his Allen County case. 
 
(Emphasis added.) 
{¶ 10} Seizing on the court’s statement that his Allen County sentence 
“expired on March 7, 2012,” Jackson argues that he has fully served his sentence.  
And to the extent that the Richland County court erred in declaring that the Allen 
County sentence had “expired,” Jackson argues, the state waived the error by not 
appealing the entry. 
{¶ 11} But Jackson is wrong about what the Richland County trial court 
decided.  The court did not declare that the Allen County sentence had “expired”; 
rather, the court clarified which periods of jail-time credit had expired when 
discussing which sentence Jackson’s confinement between August 19, 2011, and 
January Term, 2023 
 
 
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March 7, 2012, was properly credited to.  The court stated that on March 7, 2012, 
the period credited to the Allen County sentence expired, at which time Jackson 
began serving time credited to the Richland County sentence.  In full context, the 
trial court was explaining why the time from August 19, 2011, through March 7, 
2012, was credited to the Allen County sentence and not to the Richland County 
sentence.  Accordingly, the court of appeals correctly found that Jackson’s 
maximum sentence has not expired. 
{¶ 12} For the foregoing reasons, Jackson is not entitled to release.  The 
court of appeals properly denied him relief in habeas corpus. 
Judgment affirmed. 
KENNEDY, C.J., and FISCHER, DEWINE, DONNELLY, STEWART, BRUNNER, 
and DETERS, JJ., concur. 
_________________ 
Gregory L. Jackson, pro se. 
Dave Yost, Attorney General, and Stephanie Watson, Assistant Attorney 
General, for appellees. 
_________________