## Facts

- Sean Talty was indicted in Medina County on two fifth-degree felony counts of criminal nonsupport of dependents under Ohio Rev. Code § 2919.21.
- Talty entered a no-contest plea and was found guilty on both counts under § 2919.21(B).
- The trial court imposed five years of community control under adult probation supervision.
- As a special condition of community control, the court ordered Talty to “make all reasonable efforts to avoid conceiving another child” during the five-year supervision period, without specifying particular methods.
- Talty appealed only the antiprocreation condition, arguing it infringed the constitutional right to procreate.

## Issues

1. Whether a community-control condition requiring a criminal nonsupport offender to “make all reasonable efforts to avoid conceiving another child” during supervision is valid under Ohio community-control law and the State v. Jones probation-condition test.
2. Whether the condition is an unconstitutional, overbroad restriction on the fundamental right to procreate.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Ohio held the antiprocreation condition invalid because it was overbroad.
- The court vacated only the antiprocreation portion of the sentencing order and left the remaining community-control sanctions intact.
- The court accepted that the condition had some relationship to the offense and to preventing future criminal nonsupport, but concluded the restriction was not sufficiently limited to those purposes.
- A dissent would have upheld the condition as a reasonable, temporary restriction tied to rehabilitation and preventing future nonsupport.

## Legal Principles

- Trial courts may impose community-control conditions, but their validity is assessed under the State v. Jones three-part test: the condition must (1) be reasonably related to rehabilitation, (2) relate to the offense, and (3) relate to criminal conduct or future criminality and serve probationary goals (rehabilitation, administration of justice, prevention of recidivism).
- Even when a condition advances legitimate probationary goals, it is invalid if it unnecessarily burdens constitutional rights.
- A restriction affecting the fundamental right to procreate must be narrowly tailored to probationary objectives.
- A blanket procreation restriction for the full supervision term, without a mechanism to seek modification or restoration based on compliance or changed circumstances, can be overbroad under the Jones framework.

## Conclusion

The Ohio Supreme Court invalidated a community-control condition requiring a nonsupport offender to make “all reasonable efforts” to avoid conceiving a child during supervision, holding that the restriction, though related to preventing future nonsupport, swept more broadly than necessary and therefore could not stand.


State v. Talty, 103 Ohio St. 3d 177, 814 N.E.2d 1201 (Ohio 2004)