The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday let stand a ruling last year by the Ohio Supreme Court that a Dayton man had his constitutional rights violated when he received a mandatory sentence as an adult based in part on a previous conviction as a juvenile.
The decision, however, is not likely to shorten the sentence for Adrian L. Hand, who in 2013 pleaded guilty to three first-degree and two second-degree felonies before a Montgomery County Common Pleas judge, including felonious assault and kidnapping.
But the ruling does mean Judge Dennis Langer acted incorrectly when he imposed a six-year mandatory sentence on Hand in part because of his juvenile conviction. Instead, Langer should have imposed a six-year non-mandatory sentence, which would have allowed Hand to ask for early release.
After the Ohio Supreme Court ruling, attorneys for Hand asked that he be released early, but a trial judge denied the request. He is scheduled to be released in August of 2018.
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