Did Corrections Department Error Subject Offender to Reimprisonment After Earning Early Release?
State of Ohio v. Lynn Roberts, Case no. 2009-0299 1st District Court of Appeals (Hamilton County) ISSUE: When the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (ODRC) offers an eligible prisoner the option of participating in an Intensive Prison Program (IPP) through which he can earn early release, and the prisoner has successfully completed the program and been released from prison, does the subsequent discovery of a procedural error by ODRC staff in failing to properly notify the sentencing judge about the IPP offer void the grant of early release and give the sentencing court jurisdiction to resentence the offender and return him to prison? BACKGROUND: Lynn Roberts of Cincinnati was convicted in 2006 on separate counts of possession of heroin and trafficking in heroin, and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for trafficking and 18 months for possession, with the sentences to be served concurrently. Roberts appealed his convictions, alleging that the guilty verdicts were contr
