Terms Used In Ohio Code > Chapter 2929 - Penalties and Sentencing

• Accelerant: means a fuel or oxidizing agent, such as an ignitable liquid, used to initiate a fire or increase the rate of growth or spread of a fire. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Acquittal:
  1. Judgement that a criminal defendant has not been proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
  2. A verdict of "not guilty."
   
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Alternative residential facility: includes a community alternative sentencing center or district community alternative sentencing center when authorized by section 307. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Another: when used to designate the owner of property which is the subject of an offense, includes not only natural persons but also every other owner of property. See Ohio Code 1.02
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Basic probation supervision: includes basic parole supervision and basic post-release control supervision. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Bond: includes an undertaking. See Ohio Code 1.02
• Capital offense: A crime punishable by death.
• Child: includes child by adoption. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Community control sanction: includes probation if the sentence involved was imposed for a felony that was committed prior to July 1, 1996, or if the sentence involved was imposed for a misdemeanor that was committed prior to January 1, 2004. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Community-based correctional facility: means a community-based correctional facility and program or district community-based correctional facility and program developed pursuant to sections 2301. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Continuous alcohol monitoring: means the ability to automatically test and periodically transmit alcohol consumption levels and tamper attempts at least every hour, regardless of the location of the person who is being monitored. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Curfew: means a requirement that an offender during a specified period of time be at a designated place. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Day reporting: means a sanction pursuant to which an offender is required each day to report to and leave a center or other approved reporting location at specified times in order to participate in work, education or training, treatment, and other approved programs at the center or outside the center. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Defense attorney: Represent defendants in criminal matters.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Drug and alcohol use monitoring: means a program under which an offender agrees to submit to random chemical analysis of the offender's blood, breath, or urine to determine whether the offender has ingested any alcohol or other drugs. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Drug treatment program: means any program under which a person undergoes assessment and treatment designed to reduce or completely eliminate the person's physical or emotional reliance upon alcohol, another drug, or alcohol and another drug and under which the person may be required to receive assessment and treatment on an outpatient basis or may be required to reside at a facility other than the person's home or residence while undergoing assessment and treatment. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Economic loss: means any economic detriment suffered by a victim as a direct and proximate result of the commission of an offense and includes any loss of income due to lost time at work because of any injury caused to the victim, any property loss, medical cost, or funeral expense incurred as a result of the commission of the offense, and the cost of any accounting or auditing done to determine the extent of loss if the cost is incurred and payable by the victim. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Education or training: includes study at, or in conjunction with a program offered by, a university, college, or technical college or vocational study and also includes the completion of primary school, secondary school, and literacy curricula or their equivalent. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Electronic monitoring: means monitoring through the use of an electronic monitoring device. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Electronic monitoring device: means any of the following:

  (1) Any device that can be operated by electrical or battery power and that conforms with all of the following:

  (a) The device has a transmitter that can be attached to a person, that will transmit a specified signal to a receiver of the type described in division (UU)(1)(b) of this section if the transmitter is removed from the person, turned off, or altered in any manner without prior court approval in relation to electronic monitoring or without prior approval of the department of rehabilitation and correction in relation to the use of an electronic monitoring device for an inmate on transitional control or otherwise is tampered with, that can transmit continuously and periodically a signal to that receiver when the person is within a specified distance from the receiver, and that can transmit an appropriate signal to that receiver if the person to whom it is attached travels a specified distance from that receiver. See Ohio Code 2929.01

• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Halfway house: means a facility licensed by the division of parole and community services of the department of rehabilitation and correction pursuant to section 2967. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• House arrest: means a period of confinement of an offender that is in the offender's home or in other premises specified by the sentencing court or by the parole board pursuant to section 2967. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Human trafficking: means a scheme or plan to which all of the following apply:

  (1) Its object is one or both of the following:

  (a) To subject a victim or victims to involuntary servitude, as defined in section 2905. See Ohio Code 2929.01

• imprisonment: means being imprisoned under a sentence imposed for an offense or serving a term of imprisonment, prison term, jail term, term of local incarceration, or other term under a sentence imposed for an offense in an institution under the control of the department of rehabilitation and correction, a county, multicounty, municipal, municipal-county, or multicounty-municipal jail or workhouse, a minimum security jail, a community-based correctional facility, or another facility described or referred to in section 2929. See Ohio Code 1.05
• in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, symbols, or figures; this provision does not affect any law relating to signatures. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• Intensive probation supervision: includes intensive parole supervision and intensive post-release control supervision. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Jail: means a jail, workhouse, minimum security jail, or other residential facility used for the confinement of alleged or convicted offenders that is operated by a political subdivision or a combination of political subdivisions of this state. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Jail term: means the term in a jail that a sentencing court imposes or is authorized to impose pursuant to section 2929. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• License violation report: means a report that is made by a sentencing court, or by the parole board pursuant to section 2967. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Major drug offender: means an offender who is convicted of or pleads guilty to the possession of, sale of, or offer to sell any drug, compound, mixture, preparation, or substance that consists of or contains at least one thousand grams of hashish; at least one hundred grams of cocaine; at least one thousand unit doses or one hundred grams of heroin; at least five thousand unit doses of L. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Mandatory jail term: means the term in a jail that a sentencing court is required to impose pursuant to division (G) of section 1547. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Mandatory prison term: means any of the following:

  (1) Subject to division (X)(2) of this section, the term in prison that must be imposed for the offenses or circumstances set forth in divisions (F)(1) to (8) or (F)(12) to (21) of section 2929. See Ohio Code 2929.01

• Mandatory term of local incarceration: means the term of sixty or one hundred twenty days in a jail, a community-based correctional facility, a halfway house, or an alternative residential facility that a sentencing court may impose upon a person who is convicted of or pleads guilty to a fourth degree felony OVI offense pursuant to division (G)(1) of section 2929. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Monitored time: means a period of time during which an offender continues to be under the control of the sentencing court or parole board, subject to no conditions other than leading a law-abiding life. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Non-economic loss: means nonpecuniary harm suffered by a victim of an offense as a result of or related to the commission of the offense, including, but not limited to, pain and suffering; loss of society, consortium, companionship, care, assistance, attention, protection, advice, guidance, counsel, instruction, training, or education; mental anguish; and any other intangible loss. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Non-life felony indefinite prison term: means a prison term imposed under division (A)(1)(a) or (2)(a) of section 2929. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Offender: means a person who, in this state, is convicted of or pleads guilty to a felony or a misdemeanor. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Permanent disabling harm: means serious physical harm that results in permanent injury to the intellectual, physical, or sensory functions and that permanently and substantially impairs a person's ability to meet one or more of the ordinary demands of life, including the functions of caring for one's self, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, and working. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• Plea agreement: An arrangement between the prosecutor, the defense attorney, and the defendant in which the defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for special considerations. ^Source:
• Prison: means a residential facility used for the confinement of convicted felony offenders that is under the control of the department of rehabilitation and correction and includes a violation sanction center operated under authority of section 2967. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Prison term: includes either of the following sanctions for an offender:

  (a) A stated prison term;

  (b) A term in a prison shortened by, or with the approval of, the sentencing court pursuant to section 2929. See Ohio Code 2929.01

• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Property: means real and personal property. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Repeat violent offender: means a person about whom both of the following apply:

  (1) The person is being sentenced for committing or for complicity in committing any of the following:

  (a) Aggravated murder, murder, any felony of the first or second degree that is an offense of violence, or an attempt to commit any of these offenses if the attempt is a felony of the first or second degree;

  (b) An offense under an existing or former law of this state, another state, or the United States that is or was substantially equivalent to an offense described in division (CC)(1)(a) of this section. See Ohio Code 2929.01

• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Rule: includes regulation. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Sanction: includes any sanction imposed pursuant to any provision of sections 2929. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Sentence: means the sanction or combination of sanctions imposed by the sentencing court on an offender who is convicted of or pleads guilty to an offense. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Stated prison term: includes any credit received by the offender for time spent in jail awaiting trial, sentencing, or transfer to prison for the offense and any time spent under house arrest or house arrest with electronic monitoring imposed after earning credits pursuant to section 2967. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trial jury: A group of citizens who hear the evidence presented by both sides at trial and determine the facts in dispute. Federal criminal juries consist of 12 persons. Federal civil juries consist of six persons.
• United States: includes all the states. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Victim Impact Statement: A written or spoken statement by the victim or his or her representative about the physical, emotional, and financial impact of a crime on the victim. The statement is given to the court before sentencing.
• Victim-offender mediation: means a reconciliation or mediation program that involves an offender and the victim of the offense committed by the offender and that includes a meeting in which the offender and the victim may discuss the offense, discuss restitution, and consider other sanctions for the offense. See Ohio Code 2929.01
• Whoever: includes all persons, natural and artificial; partners; principals, agents, and employees; and all officials, public or private. See Ohio Code 1.02