In Re Griffin
In this petition for habeas corpus,
The facts are not in dispute. Defendant was charged and convicted on three counts of sales of marijuana in violation of section 11531 of the Health and Safety Code. He was also charged and convicted of a prior felony conviction under thе same section.
On May 2, 1961, he was sentenced to 10 years to life. That was q, proper sentence under the section as it then read. 1
On appeal, the District Court of Appeal afSrmed the conviction on the three counts of sale, but ordered the judgment modified as to the prior by determining that such prior was a misdemeanor аnd not a felony.
(People
v.
Griffin,
Effective as of September 15, 1961, section 11531 of the Health and Safety Code wаs amended to change the punishment and parole provisions. As amended, the section changed
This amendment applied whether the prior was a misdemeanor or felony, because, although the amended section uses the words “any felony offense,” section 11504 of the Health and Safety Code was added in 1961, contemporaneously with the amendment to section 11531, to provide -. “As used in this article ‘felony offense’ and offеnse ‘punishable as a felony’ refer to an offense for which the law prescribes imprisonment in the state prison as either an alternative or the sole pеnalty, regardless of the sentence the particular defendant received.” The prior here involved was a “felony offense” as thus defined even though the actual imprisonment was in the county jail.
The District Court of Appeal when it wrote the decision in
People
v.
Griffin, supra,
Thus, at the time the act was committed, the code provided a sentence of 10 years to life. Before that judgment became final, the section was amended to provide that for the offense involved the sentence was fivе years to life. Under the rule announced in the Estrada case, supra, the sentence imposed for this offense, so far as this point is concerned, should have been five years to life. But this is nоt the only point involved.
When the Legislature amended section 11531, and added section 11504 in 1961, it not only changed the sentencing provisions applicable to convictions for the crime here involved but it also changed the parole provisions. It did this in such a way that, whereas under the law as it existed in May of 1961, when defendant was sentenced, no specific time for eligibility for parole was provided, so that he was eligible for parole under the general law, and the Adult Authority has determined that he is еligible for parole after serving
Thus, the statute, as amended bеfore the conviction became final, decreased the minimum term of imprisonment from 10 years to life to five years to life. But the same statute also provided a fixed minimum for parole which was in excess of the minimum under the former statute. Under the old statute, providing for no fixed minimum of parole, the Adult Authority has fixed three years and four months as the time petitioner must serve before he is eligible for parole. Under this provision petitioner has accepted parole and recently beеn released, and is now on parole. If the amendatory statute be held applicable to him, the Department of Corrections will have no election. It must tаke petitioner back into actual custody and keep him in prison for five years from the date of his imprisonment. Thus, if the amendatory statute is held applicable to petitioner, he will have to serve an additional 20 months in physical custody beyond the time the Adult Authority has already fixed under the old statute.
Does such a statute incrеase or decrease the punishment? Does it mitigate the rigors of the old law? Whatever the technical nature of a parole may be, from a realistic рoint of view it is our opinion that such a statute increases the punishment rather than decreases it. It follows, that to apply it to petitioner, would be unconstitutionаl. It is elementary, of course, that a statute amended after an act is committed so as to increase the punishment cannot be made applicablе to an accused, because to do so would run afoul of the prohibition against ex post facto laws. (See cases collected 11 Am.Jur. p. 1176 et seq., § 348 et sеq.)
Petitioner, although informed by his court-appointed counsel of the impact upon him if the amendatory law were made applicable to him, requested thаt his counsel be relieved
The order to show cause is discharged, and thе petition for the writ denied.
Traynor, C. J., Tobriner, J., and Peek, J., concurred.
BURKE, J. For the reasons stated in the dissenting opinion in
In re Estrada, ante,
page 740 [
McComb, J., and Schauer, J., * concurred.
Notes
Section 11531 then provided, in part, that "If such a person has been previously convicted of any offense described in this division ... he shall be imprisoned in a state prison from 10 years to life,"
The section went on to provide íor a sentence of 10 years to life for conviction of two priors as described in the section. That portion of the amendment is not here relevant.
Under section 3049 of the Penal Code petitiоner was eligible for parole after serving one third of Ms minimum term. One third of 10 years is three years and four months, so that the Adult Authority fixed petitioner’s parole date at the еarliest possible date they were permitted to do so by law.
Section 11531, as amended in 1961, provides that for a first violation of the section the minimum prison sentencе required to be served before the defendant is eligible for parole shall be three years, but with a prior conviction of a “felony offense’’ the defendant “shall not be eligible for release ... on parole, or on any other basis until he has served not less than five years in prison. ’ ’
Retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court sitting under assignment by the Chairman of the Judicial Council.