Opinion
No. 36974
Decided July 12, 1961.
Criminal law — Pardon and Parole Commission — Action in declaring paroled convict a parole violator — Not reviewable in habeas corpus proceeding.
IN HABEAS CORPUS.
Petitioner was charged with unarmed robbery, pleaded not guilty, was tried to a jury, and was found guilty and sentenced to a term of from one to twenty-five years in the Ohio Penitentiary from which he seeks his release by this habeas corpus proceeding instituted in this court.
Petitioner does not question the validity of his felony conviction or the fact that he has not served the maximum of twenty-five years. His contention is that while on parole he was improperly convicted of a misdemeanor for which he served a jail sentence, and that thereafter he was declared a parole violator, returned to the penitentiary and given a four-year continuance by the Pardon and Parole Commission, pending certain investigation, to all of which petitioner excepts.
Mr. Lester W. Bussey, in propria persona. Mr. Mark McElroy, attorney general, and Mr. Aubrey A. Wendt, for respondent.
Whether the petitioner was rightfully or improperly convicted of a misdemeanor while he was on parole and for which he served a jail sentence is immaterial in the present proceeding in which he seeks his release from the penitentiary and from the remainder of his sentence for the felony.
The right of a parolee to remain on parole is a privilege which may be granted or revoked at the discretion of the Pardon and Parole Commission. Ex parte Tischler, 127 Ohio St. 404. Furthermore, the action of the Pardon and Parole Commission in declaring a paroled convict to be a parole violator and in revoking his parole is not reviewable in a habeas corpus proceeding. In re Varner, 166 Ohio St. 340.
Petitioner remanded to custody.
WEYGANDT, C.J., ZIMMERMAN, TAFT, MATTHIAS, BELL, RADCLIFF and O'NEILL, JJ., concur.
RADCLIFF, J., of the Fourth Appellate District, sitting by designation in the place and stead of HERBERT, J.