A person sentenced to death will be able to appeal the rejection of an application for DNA testing directly to the Ohio Supreme Court under new rules adopted today by the Supreme Court.

The rule changes are the result of a 2016 case (State v. Noling) in which the Court found that part of the state law that limits the appeals of capital offenders seeking DNA testing after a conviction is unconstitutional.

The amendments to the Rules of Practice of the Supreme Court of Ohio allow for filing an appeal of right from a common pleas court decision that rejects an application for DNA testing for an offender sentenced to death.

The amendments, which take effect June 1, define a new case type in Rule 5.01, specify how to file the appeal in Rule 6.01, and indicate that there are no page limits for the briefs in Rules 16.02-16.05.

PDF files may be viewed, printed, and searched using the free Acrobat^® Reader
Acrobat Reader is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.