Pratts v. Hurley

{¶ 1} We are asked to decide whether the failure of a court to convene a three-judge panel, as required by R.C. 2945.06, deprives the court of subject-matter jurisdiction in a capital case when a defendant has waived the right to trial by jury, so as to render the trial court’s judgment void ab initio and subject to collateral attack in habeas corpus.

{¶ 2} Appellant, Ruben Pratts, appeals from the dismissal of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus in which he challenged the subject-matter jurisdiction of the single judge who sentenced him in the Summit County Court of Common Pleas. In…