APPEAL
FROM THE COLUMBIA COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT [NO. 14CR-2000-39]
HONORABLE DAVID W. TALLEY, JUDGE
Fuqua
Campbell, P.A., by: J. Blake Hendrix and Annie Depper, for
appellant.
Leslie
Rutledge, Att'y Gen., by: Vada Berger, Ass't
Att'y Gen., for appellee.
COURTNEY HUDSON GOODSON, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE
Appellant
Matthew Ryan Elliott appeals from the Columbia County Circuit
Court's order denying him a resentencing hearing and
imposing a life sentence with parole eligibility pursuant to
the Fair Sentencing of Minors Act of 2017
(FSMA).[1] For reversal, Elliott argues that (1) we
have held that defendants must be sentenced in accordance
with the law in effect at the time the crime is committed,
and sentencing him under the FSMA violates that holding; (2)
the FSMA does not provide for the retroactive application of
its new sentencing schemes and the circuit court could not
sentence him pursuant to the FSMA; (3) he is entitled to the
same relief as other similarly situated defendants, and the
failure to grant such relief violates his due-process rights
under the Arkansas and United States Constitutions; (4) he is
entitled to the same relief as other similarly situated
defendants, and the failure to grant such relief violates his
equal-protection rights under the Arkansas and United States
Constitutions; (5) the FSMA sentencing scheme, as applied to
him, is an unconstitutional ex post facto law; (6) the FSMA
sentencing scheme, as applied to him, is an unconstitutional
bill of attainder; (7) the FSMA sentencing scheme, as applied
to him, is an unconstitutional special law. We reverse and
remand for resentencing in accordance with Harris v.
State, 2018 Ark. 179, 547 S.W.3d 64.
In
April 2000, Elliott pled guilty to capital murder in
connection with the February 5, 2000, death of Brittni Pater.
The State waived the death penalty, and Elliott received a
mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.
See Ark. Code Ann. § 5-10-101(c) (Repl. 1997)
(amended 2017). Elliott was sixteen years old at the time of
the murder.
In
Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460 (2012), the Supreme
Court held that the Eighth Amendment forbids a mandatory
sentence of life without parole for a juvenile offender and
that a juvenile facing a life-without-parole sentence is
entitled to a sentencing hearing at which a judge or jury may
consider the individual characteristics of the defendant and
the circumstances of the crime. In Jackson v.
Norris, 2013 Ark. 175, 426 S.W.3d 906, this court
decided a companion case to Miller on remand from
the Supreme Court. We granted habeas relief and remanded to
the circuit court for a sentencing hearing where Jackson
could present Miller evidence for consideration.
Id. We further held that Jackson's sentence must
fall within the statutory discretionary sentencing range for
a Class Y felony, which is ten to forty years or life.
Id. Subsequent to Jackson, we held in
Kelley v. Gordon, 2015 Ark. 277, 465 S.W.3d 842,
that Miller was to be applied retroactively to other
cases on collateral review.[2]
Elliott
filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Jefferson
County Circuit Court. On June 30, 2016, the circuit court
entered an order granting the writ, vacating Elliott's
life-without-parole sentence, and remanding his case to the
Columbia County Circuit Court for resentencing. Before that
resentencing hearing was held, however, the Arkansas General
Assembly passed the FSMA, which became effective on March 20,
2017. The FSMA eliminated life without parole as a sentencing
option for juvenile offenders and extended parole eligibility
to juvenile offenders.
On
remand, Elliott filed a motion for declaratory judgment, in
which he argued that he could not be sentenced pursuant to
the FSMA and sought a sentencing hearing where he could
present Miller evidence. Elliott also argued that
denying him a resentencing hearing would violate his
equal-protection and due-process rights and would amount to
an unconstitutional ex post facto law, bill of attainder or
special law. The State opposed the motion and argued that
Elliott should be sentenced pursuant to the FSMA to life in
prison with the possibility of parole after thirty years. On
October 31, 2017, the circuit court entered an order finding
that the provisions of the FSMA applied to Elliott and did
not violate his state or federal constitutional rights. The
court therefore sentenced Elliott to life in prison with
parole eligibility after 30 years. Elliott filed a timely
appeal. After Elliott filed his appellate brief, we decided
Harris in which we concluded that under the FSMA,
the revised punishment for capital murder, which is life
imprisonment with the possibility of parole after serving a
minimum of thirty years' imprisonment, is not retroactive
and applies only to crimes committed on or after March 20,
2017, the effective date of the act. Harris, 2018
Ark. 179, at 11-13, 547 S.W.3d at 70-71 (citing §§
3, 6 of the FSMA, codified at Ark. Code Ann. §§
5-4-104(b), 5-10-101(c)(1)(B) (Supp. 2017)).[3]Furthermore, we
concluded that the FSMA's parole-eligibility provisions
did not apply to Harris at the time of his resentencing
hearing because his sentence had been vacated, and he was no
longer serving a sentence to which parole eligibility could
attach. Id. We held that Harris was in the same
situation as the defendant in Jackson and that he
was entitled to a hearing at which he could present
Miller evidence and to resentencing within the
discretionary range for a Class Y felony, which is ten to
forty years or life. Id.
Because
Elliott, like Harris, committed his crime before the
effective date of the FSMA, the penalty provisions of the Act
do not apply to him. Further, because Elliott's sentence
had already been vacated by the Jefferson County Circuit
Court, he was no longer serving a sentence to which parole
eligibility could attach. Thus, the parole-eligibility
provisions of the FSMA also did not apply to Elliott at the
time of the circuit court's decision in this case. We
therefore hold that the circuit court erred by sentencing
Elliott under the FSMA.[4] We reverse and remand for a
resentencing hearing where Elliott is entitled to present
Miller evidence for consideration and where he is
subject to the discretionary sentencing range for a Class Y
felony, which is ten to forty years or life. Because we are
holding that the penalty provisions of the FSMA do not apply
to Elliott, we do not need to address his remaining
constitutional arguments. See Harris at 14, 547
S.W.3d at 71.
Reversed
and remanded.
Special
Justices Hermann Ivester and Jason Hendren join in this
opinion.
Wynne,
J., concurs.
Wood
and Womack, JJ., ...