Youngstown Daily Legal News

Appeal rejected from man imprisoned for assault, abduction

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: August 28, 2015

A per curiam opinion issued by the 11th District Court of Appeals recently dismissed a petition for habeas corpus from Reginald Gibson, who is in prison for felonious assault and abduction.

“Reginald Gibson petitions this court to issue its writ of habeas corpus to Brigham Sloan, Warden of the Lake Erie Correctional Institution,” the court’s opinion states. “Mr. Gibson contends Warden Sloan is confining him in contravention of the law.”

In it’s dismissal of the petition, the appellate court reviewed Gibson’s long history seeking relief from his August 2013 convictions out of the Stark County Court of Common Pleas.

Gibson was found guilty of felonious assault and abduction and sentenced to eight years in prison.

In 2014, the Ohio Supreme Court declined a discretionary appeal.

In February of the same year, Gibson petitioned the Stark county court for postconviction relief but the lower court denied the petition on the basis that all of Gibson’s claims were barred by res judicata since they could have been raised in a direct appeal.

Gibson proceeded to apply for a reopening of his appeal in the 5th District Court of Appeals but his application was denied.

A second petition for postconviction relief was filed in June 2014 in the 5th District court and the Stark County court.

That was also dismissed for lack of jurisdiction and the fact that Gibson’s claims were, again, barred by res judicata. The decision was affirmed on appeal.

In December 2014, Gibson filed the petition that would become the subject of his latest appeal.

Citing its own holding in 2009’s Keith v. Kelley, the appellate court wrote, “In regard to the elements of a habeas corpus claim, this court has stated on numerous occasions that such a writ will lie only when the prisoner can establish an unlawful restraint of his liberty and the absence of any alternative remedy at law.”

The court also cited the state’s high court, noting that res judicata bars any appellant from using habeas corpus to obtain successive appellate reviews of the same issue.

“We have thoroughly reviewed the claims raised by Mr. Gibson in his petition for habeas corpus,” the court of appeals wrote. “They are substantially the same as those raised in his second petition for postconviction relief.”

The court noted that all of the issues that Gibson raised could have been brought up on direct appeal.

“Thus, Mr. Gibson cannot establish one of the fundamental elements of a claim for habeas relief — that there was/is no adequate remedy at law,” the appellate court wrote.

The three judges noted that the Stark County Court of Common Pleas found the claims barred by res judicata and it agreed.

“The petition for a writ of habeas corpus is dismissed,” the court of appeals concluded.

Presiding Judge Timothy Cannon and Judges Thomas Wright and Colleen Mary O’Toole formed the majority.

The case is cited State ex rel. Gibson v. Sloan, 2015-Ohio-3088.

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