Opinion
No. 96-2186
Submitted January 7, 1997 —
Decided February 19, 1997.
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Union County, No. 14-96-25.
In 1993, the Lawrence County Court of Common Pleas convicted appellant, Barbara Lynn Massie, of sexual battery and sentenced her to an indeterminate term of three-to-ten years in prison. In 1996, Massie filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Court of Appeals for Union County. Massie claimed that she was entitled to immediate release from prison because the trial court improperly sentenced her. The court of appeals granted the Civ.R. 12(B)(6) motion of appellee, Shirley Rogers, Warden of the Ohio Reformatory for Women, and dismissed Massie's petition.
The cause is now before this court upon an appeal as of right.
Barbara Lynn Massie, pro se. Betty D. Montgomery, Attorney General, and Lillian B. Earl, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.
Massie contends that the judgment of the court of appeals should be dismissed because the trial court lacked jurisdiction to enter an indeterminate sentence on her conviction for sexual battery. But sentencing errors are not jurisdictional and are not cognizable in habeas corpus. Majoros v. Collins (1992), 64 Ohio St.3d 442, 443, 596 N.E.2d 1038, 1039.
In addition, although habeas corpus relief may be granted for nonjurisdictional claims, the petitioner must have no adequate remedy at law. State ex rel. Pirman v. Money (1994), 69 Ohio St.3d 591, 593, 635 N.E.2d 26, 29. Appeal or postconviction relief are remedies at law to review claimed sentencing errors. Blackburn v. Jago (1988), 39 Ohio St.3d 139, 139-140, 529 N.E.2d 929, 930. Since Massie possessed adequate legal remedies by an appeal or postconviction relief to raise the alleged sentencing error, the court of appeals properly dismissed the petition. Thomas v. Collins (1996), 74 Ohio St.3d 413, 413-414, 659 N.E.2d 790, 790-791.
Based on the foregoing, we affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.
Judgment affirmed.
MOYER, C.J., DOUGLAS, RESNICK, F.E. SWEENEY, PFEIFER, COOK and LUNDBERG STRATTON, JJ., concur.