State v. Henry

Syllabus

The defendant, who had been convicted, on a plea of guilty, of two counts of criminal possession of a firearm, ammunition, or an electronic defense weapon, appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court denying his motion to correct an illegal sentence. The underlying crimes were committed on April 22, 2018, and the defendant was sentenced on December 20, 2018, to a term of incarceration followed by a period of special parole. In 2018, the legislature enacted No. 18-63, § 2, of the 2018 Public Acts (P.A. 18-63), which amended subsection (b) of the special parole statute ((Rev. to 2017) § 54-125e), to require a trial court, when sentencing a person, to determine, based on various factors, whether a period of special parole was necessary to ensure public safety. Public Act 18-63 became effective on October 1, 2018. The defendant alleged that, because P.A. 18-63 became effective prior to his sentencing, (Rev. to 2017) § 54-125e (b) (1), as amended by § 2 of P.A. 18-63, applied to his sentence of special parole and that the court should vacate the special parole portion of his original sentence and replace it with a period of probation. The trial court denied the defendant's motion to correct, concluding that, despite the context and extenuating circum- stances provided by the defense, the sentencing court had remained of the opinion that special parole was warranted. The trial court indepen- dently concluded that the imposition of special parole was warranted on the basis of the defendant's 2018 convictions and his prior convic- tions, which implicated public safety. On the defendant's appeal to this court, held that the trial court properly denied the defendant's motion to correct an illegal sentence: the defendant was convicted of crimes occurring several months before P.A. 18-63 became effective, and, because this court previously has determined that P.A. 18-63 did not apply retroactively, the imposition of special parole at the defendant's sentencing w