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92 Ohio St. 3d 69

Larsen v. State

Ohio Supreme Court

Decided June 13, 2001

Ohio Supreme Court · decided 2001-06-13

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“`[H]abeas corpus in Ohio is generally appropriate in the criminal context only if the petitioner is entitled to immediate release from prison or some type of physical confinement.'”

quoted by 5 later decisions, including Alexander v. Eberlin, 06 Be 38 (9-17-2007), Jordan v. State, Unpublished Decision (1-26-2007)

“If a habeas corpus petitioner seeking release is subsequently released, the petitioner's habeas corpus claim is normally rendered moot.”

quoted by 3 later decisions, including Alexander v. Eberlin, 06 Be 38 (9-17-2007), Jordan v. State, Unpublished Decision (1-26-2007)

Relies on Spencer v. Kemna · State ex rel. Calvary v. City of Upper Arlington · Pewitt v. Superintendent, Lorain Correctional Institution

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 2001-06-13

How this case has been cited

Cited by 34 later decisions — most recently July 2024 · most notably State ex rel. Gordon v. Murphy (2006), Crase v. Bradshaw (2006)

34 state decisions

140200120102020decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Per Curiam.

¶1In September 1999, appellant, John D. Larsen, was released on his own recognizance after being charged with .forgery. In November 1999, a grand jury returned an indictment charging Larsen with one count of failure to appear after being released, in violation of R.C. 2937.99. In February 2000, the Lawrence County Court of Common Pleas convicted Larsen of failure to appear and sentenced him to a prison term of one year, crediting him with eighteen days for time served.

¶2In July 2000, Larsen filed a petition in the Court of Appeals for Noble County for a writ of habeas corpus on the grounds that his indictment was defective because it failed to state an indictable offense. In August 2000, the court of appeals dismissed the petition.

¶3In his appeal of right, Larsen claims that the court of appeals erred in dismissing his petition. For the following reasons, we dismiss this appeal as moot.

¶4Habeas corpus is generally appropriate in the criminal context only if the petitioner is entitled to immediate release from prison. Douglas v. Money (1999), 85 Ohio St.3d 348, 349, 708 N.E.2d 697, 698. If a habeas corpus petitioner seeking release is subsequently released, the petitioner’s habeas corpus claim is normally rendered moot. Pewitt v. Lorain Correctional Inst. (1992), 64 Ohio *70St.3d 470, 472, 597 N.E.2d 92, 94. Larsen’s appeal is moot because his one-year sentence has expired and he has been released from prison.

John D. Larsen, pro se.Betty D. Montgomery, Attorney General, and Thelma Thomas Price, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

¶5Moreover, this is not a claim that is “capable of repetition, yet evading review.” Spencer v. Kemna (1998), 523 U.S. 1, 17, 118 S.Ct. 978, 988, 140 L.Ed.2d 43, 56; State ex rel. Calvary v. Upper Arlington (2000), 89 Ohio St.3d 229, 231, 729 N.E.2d 1182, 1185. In fact, we have frequently reviewed these issues and have consistently held that claims challenging the validity and sufficiency of an indictment are not cognizable in habeas corpus. See, e.g., Buoscio v. Bagley (2001), 91 Ohio St.3d 134, 135, 742 N.E.2d 652, 653; Gunnell v. Lazaroff (2000), 90 Ohio St.3d 76, 76-77, 734 N.E.2d 829, 830.

¶6Based on the foregoing, we dismiss this appeal as moot.

¶7Appeal dismissed.

Moyer, C.J., Douglas, Resnick, F.E. Sweeney, Pfeifer, Cook and Lundberg Stratton, JJ., concur.
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