Court Opinion

ID: 9370622
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-02-14 14:06:30.715236+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:16:22.713388
License: Public Domain

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as
Alston v. Bracy, Slip Opinion No. 2023-Ohio-402.]

                                        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-402
              ALSTON, APPELLANT, v. BRACY, WARDEN, APPELLEE.
  [Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it
       may be cited as Alston v. Bracy, Slip Opinion No. 2023-Ohio-402.]
Habeas corpus—Inmate failed to comply with affidavit requirements of R.C.
        2969.25(A)—Court of appeals’ dismissal of petition affirmed.
  (No. 2022-0463—Submitted January 10, 2023—Decided February 14, 2023.)
              APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Trumbull County,
                         No. 2021-T-0046, 2022-Ohio-1208.
                             _______________________
        Per Curiam.
        {¶ 1} Appellant, Willie Alston, appeals the decision of the Eleventh District
Court of Appeals dismissing his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. For the
reasons that follow, we affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.
                       Factual and Procedural Background
        {¶ 2} Alston is an inmate at the Trumbull Correctional Institution.
According to the commitment papers attached to Alston’s petition, in 1993, the
                              SUPREME COURT OF OHIO

Lorain County Court of Common Pleas convicted him of two counts of attempted
murder and two counts of felonious assault, all with gun specifications. The court
imposed prison terms of 6 to 25 years for each count of attempted murder, 4 to 15
years for each count of felonious assault, and 3 years for each gun specification—
all to be served concurrently.
        {¶ 3} While imprisoned for those offenses, Alston was convicted of
felonious assault with two specifications arising from an assault on a corrections
officer. In July 1998, he was sentenced to a three-to-five-year prison term for that
offense, to run consecutively to his earlier sentences.
        {¶ 4} In November 2021, Alston filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus
in the Eleventh District against appellee, Charmaine Bracy, warden of the Trumbull
Correctional Institution, seeking his immediate release from prison. Alston alleged
that he completed his original sentence in May 2020 and was being wrongfully
imprisoned for his 1998 conviction because he was never assigned a new inmate
number for that conviction. The warden asked the Eleventh District to dismiss
Alston’s complaint for his failure to comply with the disclosure requirements of
R.C. 2969.25(A) and because proof of the allegations in the complaint would not
entitle Alston to the requested relief.
        {¶ 5} The Eleventh District dismissed Alston’s petition.         Alston has
appealed.
                                          Analysis
        {¶ 6} This court reviews de novo the Eleventh District’s judgment
dismissing Alston’s petition. State ex rel. Norris v. Wainwright, 158 Ohio St.3d
20, 2019-Ohio-4138, 139 N.E.3d 867, ¶ 5. Dismissal is appropriate if it appears
beyond doubt, after taking all factual allegations in the petition as true and making
reasonable inferences in the petitioner’s favor, that the petitioner can prove no set
of facts entitling him to a writ of habeas corpus. Orr v. Schweitzer, 165 Ohio St.3d
175, 2021-Ohio-1786, 176 N.E.3d 738, ¶ 4.

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                                January Term, 2023

       {¶ 7} The court of appeals concluded that dismissal was appropriate
because, among other reasons, Alston’s petition did not comply with R.C.
2969.25(A), which requires an inmate filing an action against a government entity
or employee in the court of appeals to, at the time of filing, submit an affidavit that
contains a brief description of each civil action or appeal of a civil action that the
inmate has filed in the previous five years, including the case number, the name of
each party to those cases, and the outcome of each case. Although Alston does not
argue that he complied with the affidavit requirements of R.C. 2969.25(A), he did
ask the Eleventh District to excuse his omissions given his pro se status. However,
“[c]ompliance with R.C. 2969.25(A) is mandatory, and failure to comply will
warrant dismissal.” State v. Henton, 146 Ohio St.3d 9, 2016-Ohio-1518, 50 N.E.3d
553, ¶ 3. Therefore, the court of appeals correctly dismissed Alston’s petition.
                                     Conclusion
       {¶ 8} Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.
                                                                  Judgment affirmed.
       KENNEDY, C.J., and FISCHER, DEWINE, DONNELLY, STEWART, BRUNNER,
and DETERS, JJ., concur.
                                _________________
       Willie Alston, pro se.
       Dave Yost, Attorney General, and Lisa K. Browning, Assistant Attorney
General, for appellee.
                                _________________

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