514
Stevens, J., dissenting
IV
Given these circumstances, we conclude that the California legislation at issue creates only the most speculative and attenuated risk of increasing the measure of punishment attached to the covered crimes. The Ninth Circuit's judgment that the amendment violates the Ex Post Facto Clause is accordingly reversed.
It is so ordered.
Justice Stevens, with whom Justice Souter joins, dissenting.
In 1980, respondent was charged with the murder of his wife. Despite respondent's previous conviction for first-degree murder, and despite the serious character of the 1980 offense, California accepted his plea of nolo contendere to the offense of second-degree murder. The trial judge imposed a sentence of imprisonment for 15 years to life, under which respondent became eligible for parole in 1990.
The law in effect at the time of respondent's offense entitled him to a hearing before the Board of Prison Terms (Board) in 1989 and in each year thereafter. In 1981, however, California amended its parole statute. The amended statute permitted the Board to delay parole hearings for multiple murderers for up to three years, provided the Board found that "it is not reasonable to expect that parole would be granted at a hearing during the following years." Cal. Penal Code Ann. § 3041.5(b)(2) (West 1982). In 1989, the Board determined that respondent was not yet "suitable" for parole, and, after making the requisite findings, the Board deferred respondent's next hearing for three years. The question before the Court is whether the California Legislature's 1981 elimination of the statutory right to an annual parole hearing increased the punishment for respondent's 1980 offense and thereby violated the Ex Post Facto Clause.
In answering that question, I begin with certain propositions of law that I do not understand the Court to dispute.
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