Knuckles v. Turner

Filing 17

Order: The Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation (Doc. 16 ) be, and the same hereby is, adopted as the order of the court. The petition for a writ of habeas corpus (Doc. 1 ) be, and the same hereby is, denied. No certificate of appealability will issue. Judge James G. Carr on 10/18/17. (Attachments: # 1 Report and Recommendation)(C,D)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO
EASTERN DIVISION

Rodney Knuckles,

Case No. 5:15CV2597
Petitioner

v.

ORDER

Neal Turner, Warden,
North Central Correctional Center,
Respondent

This is a state prisoner’s habeas case under 28 U.S.C. § 2254.
In 2012, following petitioner Rodney Knuckles’s plea of guilty to burglary charges, the
Common Pleas Court of Summit County, Ohio, sentenced Knuckles to five years of imprisonment.
State v. Knuckles, 2013-Ohio-4024 (Ohio App.). (Knuckles is also serving an indefinite sentence of
between 15 years’ and life imprisonment for a 1983 murder conviction).
After exhausting his state-court remedies, Knuckles filed this habeas action. (Doc. 1). He
alleges that the trial court violated O.R.C. § 2951.03(A)(1) when it placed him on community control
(a form of probation) without ordering or reviewing a presentence report. (Id. at 5).
Pending is Magistrate Judge Limbert’s Report and Recommendation, which recommends that
I deny the petition because Knuckles’s claim is a non-cognizable state-law claim. (Doc. 16). In the
R&R, the Magistrate Judge advised Knuckles that he had fourteen days to file an objection
(id. at 17), but that deadline has passed without such a filing.

Knuckles’s failure to file an objection waived his right to have me conduct a de novo review
of the R&R. Amison v. Legg, 2015 WL 853526, *1 (N.D. Ohio) (Lioi, J.). In any event, I agree with
Magistrate Judge Limbert that Knuckles’s claim presents only a question of state law that is not
cognizable on federal collateral review. Wilson v. Corcoran, 562 U.S. 1, 5 (2010).
It is, therefore,
ORDERED THAT:
1.

The Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation (Doc. 16) be, and the same
hereby is, adopted as the order of the court;

2.

The petition for a writ of habeas corpus (Doc. 1) be, and the same hereby is, denied;
and

3.

No certificate of appealability will issue.

So ordered.
/s/ James G. Carr
Sr. U.S. District Judge

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