Ohio Supreme Court Restrict Judges’ Power to Free Some Prisoners

Ohio courts can’t use the state’s judicial-release law to free inmates serving “indefinite” sentences imposed before lawmakers rewrote the criminal code in 1996, the state Supreme Court said Tuesday.

Judges may only use the law to release inmates serving a “stated prison term,” the court said in a 6-1 opinion. That doesn’t include sentences that contain a minimum and potential maximum term imposed before law changed, Justice Daniel R. Hawkins (R) wrote.

The ruling means that a 2023 order releasing Daniel M. Staffrey Sr.—who pleaded guilty to rape, attempted aggravated murder, and other crimes he committed in 1995, and ...