Robert Breest v. Raymond Helgemoe, Etc.

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• acknowledging that a due process right to finality might arise when an illegal sentence is corrected so as to “postpone[] parole eligibility or release date far beyond that originally set”
• prospect of release on date certain may \assume a real and psychologically critical importance\ to prisoner
• “the power of a sentencing court to correct even a statutorily invalid sentence must be subject to some temporal limit”
• where court failed to fulfill statutory duty to make finding regarding nature of crime, sentence was legally incomplete and must be corrected by the court
• “After a substantial period of time, therefore, it might be fundamentally unfair, and thus violative of due process for a court to alter even an illegal sentence.”
• court had duty to correct statutorily invalid sentence even after petitioner began service and did not violate double jeopardy principles in doing so, though time for court to correct invalid sentence is subject 18 to some temporal limit to prevent violation of due process

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).