State v. Roberts

{¶ 101} Respectfully, I dissent.

{¶ 102} The principal focus of this appeal concerns whether a trial court commits reversible error if it fails to include in its statutorily mandated capital-offense sentencing opinion a statement that it has considered the allocution of a convicted murderer. However, allocution is a statutory right, not a constitutional one, and it necessarily follows that the court’s failure to affirmatively state that it *252considered the allocution does not rise to the level of constitutional error. Further, this court has never required the trial court to discuss in its…