State v. Buckingham

To decide these causes we must determine the conditions under which a Court of Appeals has *15jurisdiction to entertain the state’s appeal from a trial court decision in a criminal case granting defendant’s pre-trial motion to suppress evidence. Since R. C. 2945.67 provides that such an appeal may be prosecuted as a matter of right,1 our inquiry is confined to the limitations imposed by the Ohio Constitution2 and by the Criminal Rules.

The relevant constitutional limitation is the venerable “final order” requirement included in Section 3(B)(2), Article IV of the Ohio Constitution.3 In State v.…