State v. Hester

186 A.3d 236, 233 N.J. 381
CourtSupreme Court of New Jersey
DecidedMay 30, 2018
DocketA–91 Sept. Term 2016; 079228
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 186 A.3d 236 (State v. Hester) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hester, 186 A.3d 236, 233 N.J. 381 (N.J. 2018).

Opinion

JUSTICE ALBIN delivered the opinion of the Court.

*238**384Under the Violent Predator Incapacitation Act, L. 1994, c. 130, §§ 1 and 2, a defendant convicted of certain sex offenses pursuant to N.J.S.A. 2C:43-6.4 is required to serve a special sentence of community supervision for life (CSL).1 We must determine the **385constitutionality of the retroactive application of the 2014 Amendment to N.J.S.A. 2C:43-6.4 (2014 Amendment), L. 2013, c. 214, § 4 (effective July 1, 2014), which increased the punishment for the CSL violations committed by the four defendants in this case.

As a result of their sex-offense convictions, all four defendants were required to serve a special sentence of community supervision for life after completion of their prison terms. The commission of their offenses, the judgments of their convictions, and the commencement of their sentences all preceded passage of the 2014 Amendment. Before the 2014 Amendment, a violation of the terms of CSL was punishable as a fourth-degree crime. See L. 1994, c. 130, § 2. The 2014 Amendment increased a CSL violation to a third-degree crime punishable by a presumptive term of imprisonment, and such a violation converted CSL to parole supervision for life (PSL). See N.J.S.A. 2C:43-6.4(a) and (d) ; see also L. 2013, c. 214, § 4. Unlike CSL, PSL authorizes the New Jersey Parole Board to revoke an offender's supervised release for a PSL violation and to return the offender to prison. See N.J.S.A. 2C:43-6.4(b).

After enactment of the 2014 Amendment, all four defendants allegedly violated the terms of their CSL. They were indicted for committing third-degree offenses and faced the increased penalties provided by that Amendment. The trial courts presiding over defendants' cases concluded that the 2014 Amendment's enhanced penalties, as applied to defendants, violated the Ex Post Facto Clauses of the United States and New Jersey Constitutions and dismissed the indictments. The Appellate Division affirmed. State v. Hester, 449 N.J. Super. 314, 318, 157 A.3d 865 (App. Div. 2017).

We now hold that the Federal and State Ex Post Facto Clauses bar the retroactive application of the 2014 Amendment to defendants' CSL violations. A law that retroactively increases or makes more burdensome the punishment of a crime is an ex post facto law. Riley v. Parole Bd., 219 N.J. 270, 284-85, 98 A.3d 544 (2014). Community supervision for life was a punishment imposed on defendants at the time *239they were sentenced. See id="p386" href="#p386" data-label="386" data-citation-index="2" class="page-label">**386id. at 288-89, 98 A.3d 544. The 2014 Amendment retroactively increased the punishment for defendants' earlier committed sex offenses by enhancing the penalties for violations of the terms of their supervised release. The Amendment, therefore, is an ex post facto law that violates our Federal and State Constitutions as applied to defendants.

We affirm the judgment of the Appellate Division dismissing defendants' indictments.

I.

A.

In separate proceedings, defendants Melvin Hester, Mark Warner, Anthony McKinney, and Linwood Roundtree were convicted of sex offenses and sentenced to serve special sentences of community supervision for life in accordance with N.J.S.A. 2C:43-6.4, after completion of the custodial portions of their sentences.2 All four defendants had committed their sex offenses more than ten years before the enactment of the 2014 Amendment to N.J.S.A. 2C:43-6.4 and were sentenced under an earlier iteration of that statute.

At the time of defendants' sentencing proceedings, under the 1994 version of N.J.S.A. 2C:43-6.4, a trial court was required to impose "a special sentence of community supervision for life" on any defendant who committed an enumerated sex offense before January 14, 2004.3 See L. 1994, c. 130, § 2 (codified at N.J.S.A. 2C:43-6.4 (1995) ); L. 2003, c. 267, § 1 (PSL effective Jan. 14, **3872004); N.J.A.C. 10A:71-6.11(a) and (b). Under CSL, convicted sex offenders, such as defendants, are "supervised as if on parole and subject to conditions appropriate to protect the public and foster rehabilitation." L. 1994, c. 130, § 2; N.J.A.C. 10A:71-6.11(b); see also State v. Schubert, 212 N.J. 295, 305-08, 53 A.3d 1210 (2012).

As part of their CSL obligations, defendants were required to abide by more than twenty general conditions governing the terms of their supervised release. N.J.A.C. 10A:71-6.11(b). The general conditions relevant to this appeal obligated each defendant: to report to his "assigned parole officer as instructed," N.J.A.C. 10A:71-6.11(b)(2); to "[r]eside at a residence approved by the assigned parole officer," N.J.A.C. 10A:71-6.11(b)(7); to "[o]btain the permission of the assigned parole officer prior to any change of residence," N.J.A.C. 10A:71-6.11(b)(8); and to "[c]omply with any curfew established by the assigned parole officer," N.J.A.C. 10A:71-6.11(b)(19).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
186 A.3d 236, 233 N.J. 381, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hester-nj-2018.