Tennessee High Court: Repeal of Law Doesn’t Invalidate Old Sentences
The question came through the courts as part of a case trying a Tennessee man convicted of driving after being declared a “motor vehicle habitual offender,” under a law that was later repealed and replaced criminal charges with civil procedures.
Landwebs
In Tennessee, the state’s Supreme Court has decided that a state law that allows defendants prosecuted under criminal laws that were later amended or appealed to receive a punishment matching the ‘lesser penalty’ of the newer law does not apply to waiving punishments for people convicted and sentenced under criminal laws that were later fully repealed without a lesser or alternative sentencing alternative provided. The question came through the courts as part of a case trying a Tennessee man convicted of driving after being declared a “motor vehicle habitual offender,” under a law that was later repealed and replaced criminal charges with civil procedures.
The state’s Supreme Court found in a unanimous decision that, unless new law provides for specific alternatives, if a criminal offense is appealed without providing alternative sentences for people previously charged with it, a person must be charged and sentenced according to what the law was at the time of their original offense.
