According to § 2923.13 of the Ohio Revised Code, certain people are
not knowingly allowed to acquire, have, carry or use any firearm. Violating
this section is a third degree felony. The defendant-appellant in this
case argued that this is unconstitutional by violating a citizen’s
fundamental right to bear arms. But, since these issues were not brought
up in trial court, they cannot be brought up in the appeal. The defendant-appellant
also contends that this particular statute is vague which therefore violates
his due process rights. This issue also was not raised in trial court,
but this argument does not require burden shifting so the appeals court
was able to consider it. Lastly, the defendant-appellant claimed that
the trial court misspoke when stating the law when explaining it to the
jury, which led to an unfair trial. In this case, the conviction of having
a weapon while under disability, R.C. 2923.13(A)(4), was not error where
the statute is not void for vagueness since R.C. 3719.011 defines drug
dependent person in an intelligible manner that a person of ordinary intelligence
can understand.
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