New Ohio criminal law rules/procedure

Some major changes in Ohio criminal procedure become effective this morning.

As the Cincinnati Enquirer puts it, "On Tuesday, a package of reforms, spearheaded by the Cincinnati-based Ohio Innocence Project and approved by Ohio lawmakers, takes effect…. On July 1 , Ohio becomes an 'open-discovery' state -- which means prosecutors and defense lawyers must share more information up front than in the past, including police reports, witness statements and expert witness reports."

"This is the biggest year for criminal justice reform in the state of Ohio in a long time and possibly forever," Mark Godsey, the University of Cincinnati law professor who heads the Innocence Project, said.

Senate Bill 77, which was signed by Gov. Strickland back on April 5th becomes effective today. Provisions include an expansion of categories of the mechanism that authorizes certain convicted felons to apply for and, if specified criteria are satisfied, obtain DNA testing; a general requirement for the preservation of "biological evidence" for certain specified offenses and for specified periods of time by "governmental evidence‐retention entities."

It "requires any law enforcement agency or criminal justice entity in Ohio that conducts 'live lineups' or 'photo lineups' to adopt specific procedures for conducting those lineups prior to conducting any on or after the act's effective date, and identifies mandatory requirements that at a minimum must be imposed under those procedures."

The bill also defines "'custodial interrogation' as any interrogation involving a law enforcement officer's questioning that is reasonably likely to elicit incriminating responses and in which a reasonable person in the subject's position would consider himself or herself to be in custody, beginning when a person should have been advised of the person’s right to counsel and right to remain silent and of the fact that anything the person says could be used against the person, as specified by the United States Supreme Court in Miranda v. Arizona and subsequent decisions, and ending when the questioning has completely finished."

Along with Senate Bill 77 a number of court rule amendments also go into effect today, too, including the renowned "open- discovery" Rule 16 described above. Other rule amendments can be accessed on the Supreme Court's website.