[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as State 

ex rel. Slaughter v. Foley, Slip Opinion No. 2021-Ohio-4049.] 

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. 2021-OHIO-4049

THE STATE EX REL. SLAUGHTER, APPELLANT, v. FOLEY, WARDEN, APPELLEE.

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 

may be cited as State ex rel. Slaughter v. Foley, Slip Opinion No. 

2021-Ohio-4049.] 

Habeas corpus—If a court has jurisdiction over the case and the person, any error 

in the court’s exercise of that jurisdiction, including sentences in which a 

trial court fails to impose a statutorily mandated term, is voidable—A 

sentence that is voidable cannot be challenged in habeas corpus, because 

the inmate has an adequate remedy through direct appeal—Court of 

appeals’ judgment dismissing complaint affirmed. 

(No. 2021-0416—Submitted September 7, 2021—Decided November 17, 2021.) 

APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Lorain County 

No. 20CA11659, 2021-Ohio-545. 

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SUPREME COURT OF OHIO

2

Per Curiam. 

{¶ 1} Appellant, Kevin Slaughter, an inmate at the Grafton Correctional 

Institution, appeals the judgment of the Ninth District Court of Appeals dismissing 

his complaint for a writ of habeas corpus against appellee, Warden Keith Foley. 

We affirm. 

Background 

{¶ 2} In January 1993, Slaughter pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and 

was sentenced to a prison term of 10 to 25 years. See Lorain Cty. case No. 92CR04-

1574. He has served the full term. 

{¶ 3} Also in January 1993, Slaughter pleaded guilty to aggravated murder 

with a capital specification. See Lorain Cty. case No. 92CR04-1558. The 

sentencing entry imposed a sentence of “[l]ife with parole eligibility after 30 years.” 

{¶ 4} On July 30, 2020, Slaughter filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus 

in the Ninth District Court of Appeals. He alleged that life imprisonment with 

parole eligibility after 30 years was not a permissible sentence under Ohio law. 

Instead, he alleged, he should have been sentenced, under the law in effect at the 

time, to a term of 30 “full” years. Based on these allegations, Slaughter alleged that 

he was entitled to a writ of habeas corpus immediately releasing him from 

confinement. 

{¶ 5} The court of appeals granted Warden Foley’s motion to dismiss. 

2021-Ohio-545, ¶ 1. The court held that Slaughter’s sentence was voidable, not 

void, and therefore Slaughter did not state a claim for relief in habeas corpus. Id. 

at ¶ 10. 

{¶ 6} Slaughter appealed. 

Legal analysis 

{¶ 7} A writ of habeas corpus “is warranted in certain extraordinary 

circumstances ‘where there is an unlawful restraint of a person’s liberty and there 

is no adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law.’ ” Johnson v. Timmerman-
January Term, 2021 

3

Cooper, 93 Ohio St.3d 614, 616, 757 N.E.2d 1153 (2001), quoting Pegan v. 

Crawmer, 76 Ohio St.3d 97, 99, 666 N.E.2d 1091 (1996). Habeas corpus will lie 

only if the petitioner is entitled to immediate release from confinement. State ex 

rel. Jackson v. McFaul, 73 Ohio St.3d 185, 188, 652 N.E.2d 746 (1995). 

{¶ 8} We review de novo a decision granting a motion to dismiss under

Civ.R. 12(B)(6). Alford v. Collins-McGregor Operating Co., 152 Ohio St.3d 303, 

2018-Ohio-8, 95 N.E.3d 382, ¶ 10. “A motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim 

upon which relief can be granted tests the sufficiency of the complaint.” VolbersKlarich v. Middletown Mgt., Inc., 125 Ohio St.3d 494, 2010-Ohio-2057, 929 N.E.2d 

434, ¶ 11. “Dismissal of a complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief 

can be granted is appropriate if, after all factual allegations of the complaint are 

presumed true and all reasonable inferences are made in relator’s favor, it appears 

beyond doubt that relator can prove no set of facts warranting relief.” Clark v. 

Connor, 82 Ohio St.3d 309, 311, 695 N.E.2d 751 (1998). 

{¶ 9} Slaughter alleged that he could not be detained pursuant to a sentence 

that the trial court had no legal authority to impose. But we rejected that argument 

in State v. Henderson, 161 Ohio St.3d 285, 2020-Ohio-4784, 162 N.E.3d 776. In 

Henderson, the trial court sentenced the inmate to a definite term of 15 years when 

it should have imposed an indefinite sentence of 15 years to life. Id. at ¶ 1. We 

held that if a trial court has jurisdiction over the case and the person, then any 

sentence or judgment based on an error in the court’s exercise of that jurisdiction 

is voidable, not void. Id. at ¶ 37. And a sentence that is voidable cannot be 

challenged in habeas corpus, because the inmate has an adequate remedy through 

direct appeal. Kelley v. Wilson, 103 Ohio St.3d 201, 2004-Ohio-4883, 814 N.E.2d 

1222, ¶ 14. 

{¶ 10} In his merit brief, Slaughter contends that his habeas corpus petition 

did not challenge his sentence as void. Rather, he claims that because the court had 

no statutory authority to impose the sentence it did, he was raising a challenge to 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO

4

the court’s subject-matter jurisdiction. We rejected this argument in Henderson

when we held that the imposition of a statutorily unauthorized sentence by a court 

that otherwise has jurisdiction constitutes an error that is correctable on direct 

appeal, not a defect in that court’s subject-matter jurisdiction. 

{¶ 11} The court of appeals correctly applied Henderson when it dismissed 

Slaughter’s petition. We affirm. 

Judgment affirmed. 

O’CONNOR, C.J., and KENNEDY, FISCHER, DEWINE, DONNELLY, STEWART, 

and BRUNNER, JJ., concur. 

_________________ 

Kevin Slaughter, pro se. 

Dave Yost, Attorney General, and Jerri L. Fosnaught, Assistant Attorney 

General, for appellee. 

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