State v. Boswell

2009 Ohio 1577, 906 N.E.2d 422, 121 Ohio St. 3d 575
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedApril 9, 2009
Docket2007-2373
StatusPublished
Cited by111 cases

This text of 2009 Ohio 1577 (State v. Boswell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Boswell, 2009 Ohio 1577, 906 N.E.2d 422, 121 Ohio St. 3d 575 (Ohio 2009).

Opinions

Moyer, C.J.

I

{¶ 1} This case requires us to apply our jurisprudence regarding postrelease control to the circumstances in which a defendant seeks to withdraw his guilty plea to a crime that required postrelease control as part of the sentence, but the trial court failed to include it. We hold that because the sentence is void as contrary to law, the defendant must be resentenced, and his motion to withdraw his plea must be treated as a presentence motion under Crim.R. 32.1. “[A] presentence motion to withdraw a guilty plea should be freely and liberally granted.” State v. Xie (1992), 62 Ohio St.3d 521, 527, 584 N.E.2d 715.

II

{¶ 2} Defendant, Parris Boswell, pleaded guilty in 2000 to aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, felonious assault, assault, and having a weapon while under a disability. At the plea hearing, the trial court told Boswell that he “may be subject to post-release control.” Because aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery are first-degree felonies, R.C. 2967.28 requires five years of postrelease control. The court also failed to explain postrelease control. In the sentencing entry, Boswell was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but not to postrelease control.

{¶ 3} In 2004 and 2005, Boswell filed two motions for a delayed appeal, but both were denied. On June 8, 2005, more than five years after being sentenced, Boswell filed a motion to vacate his plea, arguing that the trial court had failed to properly inform him during the plea hearing of the mandatory term of postrelease control and the penalties associated with violating postrelease control. The trial court granted his motion without opinion, vacating the plea.

[577]*577{¶ 4} The state appealed the trial court’s decision, but it was upheld by the court of appeals. State v. Boswell, Cuyahoga App. Nos. 88292 and 88293, 2007-Ohio-5718, 2007 WL 3105264. The court of appeals held that the trial court had not substantially complied with Crim.R. 11(C)(2)(a) and R.C. 2943.032 at the sentencing hearing, because it did not advise Boswell of the maximum penalty for his crimes before he entered his guilty plea. Id. at ¶ 9. We accepted the state’s discretionary appeal, which asserted that the court of appeals improperly applied the substantial-compliance analysis by failing to require Boswell to demonstrate that he had been prejudiced by the inaccurate plea colloquy.

Ill

{¶ 5} We do not reach the state’s argument concerning the prejudice requirement for insufficient plea colloquies, because our multitiered analysis for evaluating compliance with Crim.R. 11 does not apply under the present circumstances. We recently detailed that analysis in State v. Clark, 119 Ohio St.3d 239, 2008-Ohio-3748, 893 N.E.2d 462.

{¶ 6} This is the first case we have decided involving a sentence that failed to include mandatory postrelease control in which the defendant moved to vacate the plea. In State v. Simpkins, 117 Ohio St.3d 420, 2008-Ohio-1197, 884 N.E.2d 568, ¶ 2, for example, the state moved for resentencing prior to the defendant’s release from prison. State v. Clark, 119 Ohio St.3d 239, 2008-Ohio-3748, 893 N.E.2d 462, at ¶ 4, involved the vacating of a guilty plea, but there the defendant challenged his plea on direct appeal. Here, however, Boswell filed a motion to withdraw his plea more than five years after sentencing.

{¶ 7} Crim.R. 32.1 states: “A motion to withdraw a plea of guilty or no contest may be made only before sentence is imposed; but to correct manifest injustice the court after sentence may set aside the judgment of conviction and permit the defendant to withdraw his or her plea.” “[A] presentence motion to withdraw a guilty plea should be freely and liberally granted.” State v. Xie (1992), 62 Ohio St.3d 521, 527, 584 N.E.2d 715. The question here is whether Boswell’s motion to withdraw his plea should be considered a presentence motion, judged under the liberal standard of Xie, or a postsentence motion, requiring a showing of manifest injustice.

{¶ 8} Our recent line of cases dealing with postrelease control has consistently held that sentences that fail to impose a mandatory term of postrelease control are void. See Simpkins, 117 Ohio St.3d 420, 2008-Ohio-1197, 884 N.E.2d 568, at syllabus; State v. Bezak, 114 Ohio St.3d 94, 2007-Ohio-3250, 868 N.E.2d 961, syllabus; State ex rel. Cruzado v. Zaleski, 111 Ohio St.3d 353, 2006-Ohio-5795, 856 N.E.2d 263, ¶ 20. This stems from “the fundamental understanding that no court has the authority to substitute a different sentence for that which is required by law.” Simpkins at ¶ 20, citing Colegrove v. Burns (1964), 175 Ohio St. 437, 438, 25 O.O.2d 447, 195 N.E.2d 811. A sentence that does not comport [578]*578with statutory requirements is contrary to law, and the trial judge is acting without authority in imposing it. Id. at ¶ 21. “Because a sentence that does not conform to statutory mandates requiring the imposition of postrelease control is a nullity and void, it must be vacated. The effect of vacating the sentence places the parties in the same position they would have been in had there been no sentence.” Id. at ¶ 22, citing Bezak, 114 Ohio St.3d 94, 2007-Ohio-3250, 868 N.E.2d 961, at ¶ 13.

{¶ 9} A motion to withdraw a plea of guilty or no contest made by a defendant who has been given a void sentence must therefore be considered as a presentence motion under Crim.R. 32.1. Although such a defendant has in fact been through a sentencing hearing, the trial judge acted without authority in imposing the sentence. Crim.R. 32.1 requires a defendant making a postsentence motion to withdraw a plea to demonstrate manifest injustice because it is designed “to discourage a defendant from pleading guilty to test the weight of potential reprisal, and later withdraw the plea if the sentence was unexpectedly severe.” State v. Caraballo (1985), 17 Ohio St.3d 66, 67, 17 OBR 132, 477 N.E.2d 627, citing State v. Peterseim (1980), 68 Ohio App.2d 211, 213, 22 O.O.3d 341, 428 N.E.2d 863. This logic does not fully apply where the reprisal itself was unlawful.

{¶ 10} It is undisputed that Boswell’s sentence is void. It failed to include mandatory postrelease control, violating R.C. 2967.28. As a result, we place him in the same position that he would be in if he had never been sentenced and treat his motion to withdraw his guilty plea as a presentence motion. As explained in Xie, 62 Ohio St.3d at 527, 584 N.E.2d 715, such a motion should be “freely and liberally granted.” This does not mean, however, that Boswell has an absolute right to withdraw his plea. Id. “[T]he trial court must conduct a hearing to determine whether there is a reasonable and legitimate basis for the withdrawal of the plea.” Id.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Mullins
2024 Ohio 986 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2024)
State v. Harper (Slip Opinion)
2020 Ohio 2913 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2020)
State v. Curtis
2019 Ohio 1108 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2019)
State v. Miller
2018 Ohio 4379 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2018)
State v. Alexander
2018 Ohio 1198 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2018)
State v. Keene
2017 Ohio 7058 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2017)
State v. Bradford
2017 Ohio 3003 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2017)
State v. Davidson
2017 Ohio 1505 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2017)
State v. Weideman
2016 Ohio 2690 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2016)
State v. Pippert
2016 Ohio 1352 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2016)
State v. Soverns
2014 Ohio 4094 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2014)
State v. Brandeberry
2014 Ohio 3856 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2014)
In re N.G.
2014 Ohio 3190 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2014)
State v. Perkins
2014 Ohio 1863 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2014)
State v. Rarden
2014 Ohio 564 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2014)
State v. Salser
2014 Ohio 87 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2014)
State v. Easterly
2013 Ohio 2961 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2013)
State v. Lee
2013 Ohio 1811 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2013)
State v. Dawson
2013 Ohio 1817 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2013)
State v. Kalinowski
2013 Ohio 1453 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2009 Ohio 1577, 906 N.E.2d 422, 121 Ohio St. 3d 575, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-boswell-ohio-2009.