The applicant challenged the retrospective application of the 1997 and 2011 amendments to the faint hope provisions governing reduction of parole ineligibility for murder.
The court held that the proper analytical framework was the retrospective punishment analysis from Whaling, not the Rodgers test for discrete sanctions.
It concluded that the amendments did not increase punishment, did not thwart any settled expectation of liberty, and merely altered the procedure by which the applicant could seek a chance at earlier parole.
The constitutional application was dismissed, and the parole ineligibility reduction application was directed to proceed under s. 745.61 as amended in 2011.
