Case Information
*1 [Cite as State v. Jones , 2017-Ohio-8688.]
IN THE COURT OF APPEALS
ELEVENTH APPELLATE DISTRICT ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO
STATE OF OHIO, : MEMORANDUM OPINION
Plaintiff-Appellee, : -vs- : CASE NO. 2017-A-0057 ODRAYE G. JONES a.k.a. :
MALIK ALLAH-U-AKBAR,
Defendant-Appellant. : Criminal Appeal from the Court of Common Pleas, Case No. 1997 CR 0221. Judgment: Appeal dismissed.
Nicholas Iarocci, Ashtabula County Prosecutor, Ashtabula County Courthouse, 25 West Jefferson Street, Jefferson, OH 44047-1092 (For Plaintiff-Appellee).
Odray G. Jones, pro se, PID# A358-112, Chillocothe Correctional Institution, 15802 State Route North 104, Chillicothe, OH 45601 (Defendant-Appellant).
CYNTHIA WESTCOTT RICE, P.J.
{¶1} Appellant, Odraye G. Jones, filed a notice of appeal on August 14, 2017. On the notice, appellant references a June 11, 1998 judgment of conviction. However, attached to the notice is a June 9, 1998 entry of the Ashtabula County Court of Common Pleas sentencing appellant to Death for the offense of aggravated murder.
{¶2} Under normal circumstances, the appeal would be inordinately untimely filed and would be dismissed by this court for lack of jurisdiction. In this case, not only *2 is the appeal out of time, but more importantly we lack jurisdiction to review this matter because it is a death penalty appeal.
{¶3} OH Const. Art. IV, § 3(B)(2) states in relevant part: {¶4} “* * * [c]ourts of appeals shall not have jurisdiction to review on direct appeal a judgment that imposes a sentence of death. * * *.”
{¶5} OH Const. Art. IV, § 2(B)(2)(c) states in relevant part: {¶6} “The supreme court shall have jurisdiction as follows: {¶7} “In direct appeals from the courts of common pleas or other courts of record inferior to the court of appeals as a matter of right in cases in which the death penalty has been imposed.”
{¶8} Appellant requests on his notice of appeal “appointment of counsel under R.C. 120.33(A) to effect (sic) an appeal of the judgment of conviction entered June [9], 1998 in the Ashtabula County Court of Common Plea in Case No. 97 CR 221.” He lists a certain attorney’s name and law firm to be appointed and asks for “funds for two experts for the completion of two reports which will constitute new evidence regarding actual innocence.”
{¶9} However, this court lacks jurisdiction to proceed in an untimely appeal from a death penalty conviction and sentence.
{¶10} Appeal dismissed.
DIANE V. GRENDELL, J.,
TIMOTHY P. CANNON, J.,
concur.
2
