Ohio Supreme Court's review of denial of new trial based on new evidence

The Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday held that "in a case where a death penalty has been imposed, the state's intermediate courts of appeals have jurisdiction to review a ruling by the trial court denying the defendant's motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence, and also that a trial court has jurisdiction to decide a defendant's motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence even after the defendant’s death sentence has been affirmed on appeal by the Supreme Court of Ohio." [ State v. Davis ][ court’s summary ]

In particular the question here was "whether an intermediate court of appeals had jurisdiction to review a trial court's ruling on a new trial motion in a capital case, in light of a 1994 amendment to the state constitution that eliminated intermediate appellate review of death penalty cases in favor of direct review by the Supreme Court."

Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger noted in considerations that "among the state's 12 appellate districts, only the 11th District, appears to have reviewed that question: a) barred intermediate appellate review of a postconviction motion for a new trial in a death penalty case, or b) barred a court of appeals only from hearing the appeal of a final judgment in which a trial court actually imposes a death sentence."

On discussing that case, State v. Jackson from last year, Justice Lanzinger stated "the court concluded that '[Section 3(B)(2), Article IV, Ohio Constitution] refers expressly to a specific judgment that a court of appeals does not have the authority to review; i.e., the final sentencing judgment which sets forth the order regarding the imposition of the death penalty. Given the narrowness of the jurisdictional exception in Section 3(B)(2), logic dictates that the provision was not intended to totally deprive a court of appeals of all authority to review a final judgment stemming from a case in which the death penalty was imposed. Rather the wording of Section 3(B)(2) supports the conclusion that an appellate court has the jurisdiction to review final judgments rendered in such a proceeding, except for the entry containing the weighing exercise which leads to the imposition of the death sentence.'" (also see State v. Jackson initial appeal @ 2010 Ohio 1270)


Of the second aspect – "a trial court's retaining jurisdiction to consider a post-conviction motion for a new trial under Crim.R. 33(B) after a defendant’s death sentence has been affirmed on appeal"-- Justice Lanzinger distinguished this circumstance from the issue analyzed in the supreme court's 1978 decision in State ex rel. Special Prosecutors v. Judges, Court of Common Pleas, where, she noted, a trial court improperly allowed a defendant to withdraw his earlier guilty plea and granted him a new trial after a court of appeals had reviewed and specifically affirmed the validity of that plea in upholding the defendant’s convictions. In this case, Justice Lanzinger observed, Davis' motion for a new trial was based on new postconviction evidence challenging the validity of DNA testimony, evidence that was not part of the trial record reviewed by the Supreme Court when it upheld Davis’ convictions and death sentence on direct appeal.