[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as State v. Grevious, Slip Opinion No. 2022-Ohio-4361.] NOTICE This slip opinion is subject to formal revision before it is published in an advance sheet of the Ohio Official Reports. Readers are requested to promptly notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of Ohio, 65 South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, of any typographical or other formal errors in the opinion, in order that corrections may be made before the opinion is published. SLIP OPINION NO. 2022-OHIO-4361 THE STATE OF OHIO, APPELLEE, v. GREVIOUS, APPELLANT. [Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as State v. Grevious, Slip Opinion No. 2022-Ohio-4361.] Criminal law—Aggravated murder—Appeals—R.C. 2953.08(D)(3)—The portion of the judgment of the court of appeals relating to the constitutionality of R.C. 2953.08(D)(3) is affirmed—Because R.C. 2953.08(D)(3) does not preclude an appellate court from reviewing a constitutional challenge to an aggravated-murder sentence on appeal, the court of appeals erred by declining to review the merits of appellant’s constitutional challenges to his aggravated-murder sentence—Court of appeals’ judgment affirmed in part and reversed in part and cause remanded to the court of appeals. (No. 2019-0912—Submitted December 7, 2021—Decided December 9, 2022.) APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Butler County, No. CA2018-05-093, 2019-Ohio-1932. __________________ SUPREME COURT OF OHIO O’CONNOR, C.J., announcing the judgment of the court. {¶ 1} In this discretionary appeal, we consider the constitutionality of R.C. 2953.08(D)(3), which states: “A sentence imposed for aggravated murder or murder pursuant to sections 2929.02 to 2929.06 of the Revised Code is not subject to review under this section.” Recently, in State v. Patrick, 164 Ohio St.3d 309, 2020-Ohio-6803, 172 N.E.3d 952, ¶ 1, we held that R.C. 2953.08(D)(3) does not preclude an appellate court from reviewing an offender’s sentence for aggravated murder when the offender raises a constitutional claim regarding that sentence on appeal. Prior to this court’s decision in Patrick, the Twelfth District Court of Appeals declined to review appellant Michael Grevious’s challenges to his aggravated-murder sentence based on R.C. 2953.08(D)(3) and concluded that the provision was not unconstitutional for precluding appellate review of a sentence for aggravated murder. 2019-Ohio-1932, ¶ 68-70. Grevious now asks this court to declare R.C. 2953.08(D)(3) unconstitutional on its face and as applied to him under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. We decline to do so, and accordingly, we affirm the portion of the Twelfth District’s judgment relating to the constitutionality of R.C. 2953.08(D)(3). However, in light of our decision in Patrick, we reverse the portion of the court of appeals’ judgment concluding that it lacked authority to review the merits of Grevious’s constitutional challenges to his aggravated-murder sentence, and we accordingly remand the case to the court of appeals for it to consider the merits of those challenges. I. Relevant Background {¶ 2} R.C. 2929.03 sets forth the procedures for sentencing a defendant for aggravated murder. To face the possibility of …
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