State v. Green

Summary

The Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of Arto D. Green III’s postsentence motion to withdraw his guilty plea. The court held that Green failed to establish ineffective assistance of counsel, manifest injustice, or entitlement to an evidentiary hearing based on alleged failures concerning his mental-health history and transfer to the mental-health-court docket.

Holdings

1. Green did not establish ineffective assistance because he failed to show deficient performance or prejudice. In particular, he did not show that counsel's failure to investigate his mental-health history or request transfer to the mental-health-court docket impaired the knowing and voluntary nature of his plea or that a transfer request would have succeeded.
2. The trial court properly denied Green's postsentence motion because he failed to establish a manifest injustice under Crim.R. 32.1.
3. The trial court was not required to hold an evidentiary hearing because the facts alleged in Green's motion, even if accepted as true, would not require withdrawal of his guilty plea.

Questions Presented

1. Whether defense counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to investigate Green's mental-health history, present mental-health mitigation, or request transfer to the mental-health-court docket.
2. Whether Green established a manifest injustice warranting postsentence withdrawal of his guilty plea under Crim.R. 32.1.
3. Whether the trial court was required to conduct an evidentiary hearing before denying Green's postsentence motion to withdraw his guilty plea.

Disposition

affirmed