THE STATE EX REL. DAVIS, APPELLANT, v. JANAS, JUDGE, APPELLEE.
No. 2019-1239
Supreme Court of Ohio
April 16, 2020
2020-Ohio-1462
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. 2020-OHIO-1462
THE STATE EX REL. DAVIS, APPELLANT, v. JANAS, JUDGE, APPELLEE.
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as State ex rel. Davis v. Janas, Slip Opinion No. 2020-Ohio-1462.]
Mandamus—Nunc pro tunc sentencing entry—Judge patently and unambiguously lacked jurisdiction to change defendant’s sentence after defendant’s sentence had been affirmed on appeal—Court of appeals’ judgment dismissing complaint reversed and cause remanded.
(No. 2019-1239—Submitted January 28, 2020—Decided April 16, 2020.)
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Lorain County, No. 19CA011500, 2019-Ohio-3134.
Per Curiam.
{¶ 1} Appellant, Ian D. Davis, appeals the judgment of the Ninth District Court of Appeals dismissing his complaint for a writ of mandamus against appellee, former Lorain County Court of Common Pleas Judge Thomas W. Janas. Because
Background
{¶ 2} In 1994, in Lorain County Common Pleas case No. 93CR043666, the trial court sentenced Davis following his aggravated-murder conviction to life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 years, with credit for 340 days. The trial court ordered Davis to serve that sentence consecutively to his sentence in Lorain County Court of Common Pleas case No. 91CR040924 (an indeterminate prison term of 8 to 15 years). The court of appeals affirmed Davis’s conviction and sentence. State v. Davis, 9th Dist. Lorain No. 94CA005989, 1996 WL 121998 (Mar. 20, 1996).
{¶ 3} In 2018, the Adult Parole Authority informed Davis that the trial court had issued a nunc pro tunc entry in 1999 stating that his sentence for aggravated murder was 20 full years to life. Specifically, the entry stated that “the Court’s sentencing entry is hereby amended nunc pro tunc to indicate that Defendant is sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after Defendant has served 20 full years.” Davis has averred that he did not know that his sentence had been changed until 2018 when the Adult Parole Authority told him about the nunc pro tunc entry. He subsequently requested a copy of the nunc pro tunc entry from the Lorain County Clerk of Courts.
{¶ 4} On April 18, 2019, Davis filed a complaint for a writ of mandamus in the Ninth District Court of Appeals, arguing that the 1999 nunc pro tunc entry erroneously increased his sentence and asserting that the trial court patently and unambiguously lacked jurisdiction to issue the entry after the court of appeals had affirmed his sentence. Davis contended that he is entitled to a writ of mandamus ordering the trial court to vacate the nunc pro tunc entry and “reinstate the original sentence of life with parole eligibility after 20 years.”
{¶ 6} The court of appeals granted the judge’s motion to dismiss the complaint, determining that Davis had an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of the law. The court did not address Davis’s claim that the trial court patently and unambiguously lacked jurisdiction to increase his sentence after it had been affirmed on appeal.
Parole eligibility after 20 years vs. parole eligibility after 20 full years
{¶ 7} Davis was convicted of aggravated murder in 1994 in violation of
Davis’s original 1994 sentencing entry indicates that he was convicted of aggravated murder without any aggravating circumstances. Thus, in 1994, he was correctly sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 years.
{¶ 8} The difference between a sentence of life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 years and life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 full years is the offender’s ability to reduce the base sentence by earning certain types of credit. Compare
Legal analysis
{¶ 9} To be entitled to a writ of mandamus, Davis must establish that (1) he has a clear legal right to the relief requested, (2) the judge has a clear legal duty to perform the requested act, and (3) Davis has no adequate remedy in the ordinary course of the law. State ex rel. Marsh v. Tibbals, 149 Ohio St.3d 656, 2017-Ohio-829, 77 N.E.3d 909, ¶ 24. He must prove his entitlement to the writ by clear and convincing evidence. State ex rel. O’Grady v. Griffing, 140 Ohio St.3d 290, 2014-Ohio-3687, 17 N.E.3d 574, ¶ 11.
Patent and unambiguous lack of jurisdiction
{¶ 10} The general rule is that mandamus will not lie in cases in which the relator already possesses an adequate legal remedy. State ex rel. Dannaher v. Crawford, 78 Ohio St.3d 391, 393, 678 N.E.2d 549 (1997). But when there is a patent and unambiguous lack of jurisdiction, such extraordinary relief is warranted
{¶ 11} A court of common pleas “has original jurisdiction over all crimes and offenses, except in cases of minor offenses the exclusive jurisdiction of which is vested in courts inferior to the court of common pleas.”
{¶ 12} In this case, the trial court invoked
“Clerical mistakes in judgments, orders, or other parts of the record, and errors in the record arising from oversight or omission, may be corrected by the court at any time.” A clerical error or mistake refers to “ ‘ “a mistake or omission, mechanical in nature and apparent on the record, which does not involve a legal decision or judgment.” ’ ” State v. Miller, 127 Ohio St.3d 407, 2010-Ohio-5705, 940 N.E.2d 924, ¶ 15, quoting State ex rel. Cruzado v. Zaleski, 111 Ohio St.3d 353, 2006-Ohio-5795, 856 N.E.2d 263, ¶ 19, quoting State v. Brown, 136 Ohio App.3d 816, 819-820, 737 N.E.2d 1057 (3d Dist.2000).
{¶ 13} A nunc pro tunc entry may not be used to make substantive changes to an offender’s sentence. Id. at ¶ 16-17. Nunc pro tunc entries are “ ‘limited in proper use to reflecting what the court actually decided, not what the court might or should have decided or what the court intended to decide.’ ” State ex rel. Mayer v. Henson, 97 Ohio St.3d 276, 2002-Ohio-6323, 779 N.E.2d 223, ¶ 14, quoting State ex rel. Fogle v. Steiner, 74 Ohio St.3d 158, 164, 656 N.E.2d 1288 (1995).
{¶ 14} We confronted a similar situation in State ex rel. Mayer v. Henson. In that case, the trial court had sentenced an offender to consecutive prison terms. Id. at ¶ 1. The court subsequently issued a nunc pro tunc entry changing the sentence to permit the terms to be served concurrently. Id. at ¶ 3. The prosecuting attorney filed a complaint for a writ of mandamus or prohibition, alleging that the judge patently and unambiguously lacked jurisdiction to modify the sentence. Id. at ¶ 8. The court of appeals dismissed the complaint, determining that the prosecuting attorney had an adequate remedy by way of appeal. Id. at ¶ 9. We reversed and remanded the case on the basis that the prosecuting attorney had sufficiently alleged that the trial court patently and unambiguously lacked jurisdiction to modify a final sentence by way of a nunc pro tunc entry. Id. at ¶ 14, 17-18.
{¶ 15} Davis’s complaint states a meritorious claim that the trial court patently and unambiguously lacked jurisdiction to change his sentence after his sentence had been affirmed on appeal. In support of this claim, he has attached the original 1994 sentencing entry showing that he was convicted of aggravated murder without any aggravating circumstances and that the court imposed a sentence of life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 years. He also included a partial transcript from his sentencing hearing, likewise demonstrating that the trial court imposed a sentence of life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 years—which was the mandatory sentence for his offense. See former
{¶ 16} Despite the judge’s contention that the nunc pro tunc entry did not change Davis’s sentence, he acknowledged in his motion to dismiss that the original 1994 sentencing entry “sentenced relator to life in prison with parole eligibility after twenty years” and that the 1999 nunc pro tunc entry “amends the entry to reflect ‘Defendant is sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after Defendant has served 20 full years.’ ” Thus, the judge appears to concede some facts demonstrating that the nunc pro tunc entry changed Davis’s sentence from life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 years to life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 full years.
{¶ 17} Moreover, we do not think the issue is moot simply because Davis has become eligible for parole. Davis is still serving his sentence. He is entitled to serve the correctly imposed sentence and receive any credits and reductions to his sentence that he may have earned for program participation and good behavior.
{¶ 18} We conclude that the court of appeals erred in dismissing Davis’s complaint. We therefore reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and remand the cause to that court for further proceedings. Mayer, 97 Ohio St.3d 276, 2002-Ohio-6323, 779 N.E.2d 223, at ¶ 18, quoting Fogle, 74 Ohio St.3d at 163, 656 N.E.2d 1288 (“ ‘Generally, reversal of a court of appeals’ erroneous dismissal of a complaint * * * requires a remand to that court for further proceedings’ ”).
Judgment reversed and cause remanded.
O’CONNOR, C.J., and KENNEDY, FRENCH, FISCHER, DEWINE, DONNELLY, and STEWART, JJ., concur.
Ian D. Davis, pro se.
Dennis P. Will, Lorain County Prosecuting Attorney, and Cara M. Finnegan, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee.