State v. Wozniak

In State v. Wozniak (1961), 172 Ohio St. 517, 178 N.E.2d 800, the Supreme Court of Ohio affirmed an appellate court decision reversing an attempted burglary conviction because the trial court had permitted the state to amend the indictment to include the essential element of intent. Contrary to its earlier holding in Cimpritz, the Wozniak Court conceded that the curative statutory provisions cited in that case, standing alone, might have required reversal of the appellate court's decision. The Court chose instead to predicate its decision on Section 10 of Article I of the Constitution of Ohio, which provides, "no person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous, crime, unless on presentment or indictment of a grand jury." The Wozniak Court held that, "in order to justify conviction of a defendant for such a crime, the grand jury and not the prosecutor, even with the approval of the court, must charge the defendant with each essential element of that crime." Id., 178 N.E.2d 800.