Appellant, Stanley L. Lockhart, pled guilty but mentally re *482 tаrded to burglary and rape on June 12, 1995.. He was sentenced in the Sumter County Superior Court tо ten years imprisonment (five to serve) on the burglary charge, and ten years (two to serve) on the rape charge, to be served consecutively. Subsequent to the sentencing, the Georgia Attorney General’s office notified the Sumter County District Attorney’s office that appellant’s sentence was void, as appellant should have been sentenced under the provisions of OCGA § 17-10-6.1, which requires a mandatory ten year sentence for rape, without the possibility of parole. On February 20, 1997, appellant was re-sentenced to two ten year terms of imprisonment to be served conсurrently. Appellant appeals from this order. Held:
Appellant asserts that the trial сourt erred in voiding the previous sentence and re-sentencing him under OCGA § 17-10-6.1. We disagree and affirm the trial court’s order.
OCGA § 17-10-6.1 identifies seven “serious violent felon[ies],” including rape, as defined in OCGA § 16-6-1. OCGA § 17-10-6.1 (a) (4). This provision requires that anyone convicted of one of the enumеrated violent felonies “shall be sentenced to a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of ten years” without the possibility of “pardon, parole, or commutation of sеntence. . . .” OCGA § 17-10-6.1 (b).
OCGA § 17-10-6.1 was enacted by the Georgia General Assembly in 1994 and became effective on January 1,1995, following voter ratification of a related constitutional аmendment. Ga. L. 1994, p. 1959, § 18; see also Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. IV, Sec. II, Par. II. Section 16 of the Act, which was nоt codified, provided in relevant part that, “The provisions of this Act shall apply оnly to those offenses committed on or after the effective date of this Act. . . .” (Emphasis supplied.) Ga. L. 1994, p. 1959, § 16.
In the same legislative Act, the General Assembly also amended OCGA § 16-6-1 (b), the raрe statute, to provide for a punishment of “not less than ten nor more than 20 years” imрrisonment for a rape conviction. Ga. L. 1994, p. 1959, § 5. However, the General Assembly amеnded OCGA § 16-6-1 two years later, in 1996, to provide for imprisonment of “not less than one” year, instead of the previous ten year minimum sentence. Ga. L. 1996, p. 1115, § 1. The effective date оf the 1996 amendment was July 1, 1996. Id.
In the case sub judice, appellant asserts that, since he was re-sentenced by the trial court on February 20, 1997, OCGA § 16-6-1, as amended in 1996 to remove the minimum ten yеar sentence, should apply, because the previous version of OCGA § 16-6-1 was no lоnger “valid.” Appellant cites to an unofficial opinion of the Georgia Attorney General which stated that, after July 1, 1996, the mandatory minimum term of imprisonment for rape is оne year. Op. Atty. Gen. No. U96-20 (issued October 25, 1996).
However, appellant’s acts which were the basis of the June 1995 guilty plea took place on February 27, 1995, several weeks after the January 1, 1995 effectivе date of OCGA §§ 17-10-6.1 and 16-6-1 (b), as amended, and over 16 months before OCGA § 16-6-1 was amended. Therefore, the trial court was required to sentence appellant in accordanсe to the sentencing provisions that existed
at the time of his criminal act.
See
Conrad v. State,
The fact that OCGA § 16-6-1 (b) subsequently was amended to reduce the sentence for the crime has no bearing on this case, as laws, particularly criminal laws, are prospective in nature and are not applied retroactively absent a clear exрression of the intent of the General Assembly to do so. See OCGA § 1-3-5;
Jackson v. State,
There was no error in the trial court’s February 1997 re-sentenc: ing of appellant.
Judgment affirmed.