Cite as: 519 U. S. 433 (1997)
Opinion of the Court
General, pro se, and Jason Vail, Assistant Attorney General. Susan A. Maher filed a brief for respondent Mathis.*
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court. In 1983 and thereafter the Florida Legislature enacted a series of statutes authorizing the department of corrections to award early release credits to prison inmates when the population of the state prison system exceeded predetermined levels. The question presented by this case is whether a 1992 statute canceling such credits for certain classes of offenders after they had been awarded—indeed, after they had resulted in the prisoners' release from custody—violates the Ex Post Facto Clause of the Federal Constitution.
I
In 1986 petitioner pleaded nolo contendere to a charge of attempted murder and received a sentence of 22 years (8,030 days) in prison. In 1992 the Florida Department of Corrections released him from prison based on its determination that he had accumulated five different types of early release credits totaling 5,668 days.1 Of that total, 1,860 days were
*Chet Kaufman filed a brief for the Florida Public Defender Association, Inc., as amicus curiae urging reversal.
A brief of amici curiae urging affirmance was filed for the State of Nevada et al. by Frankie Sue Del Papa, Attorney General of Nevada, and Anne B. Cathcart, Senior Deputy Attorney General, and by the Attorneys General for their respective States as follows: Daniel E. Lungren of California, Michael J. Bowers of Georgia, Alan G. Lance of Idaho, Carla J. Stovall of Kansas, Joseph P. Mazurek of Montana, Don Stenberg of Nebraska, Betty D. Montgomery of Ohio, W. A. Drew Edmondson of Oklahoma, Jeffrey B. Pine of Rhode Island, Charles Molony Condon of South Carolina, Jeffrey L. Amestoy of Vermont, and James S. Gilmore III of Virginia.
Lisa B. Kemler and Baya Harrison III filed a brief for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers as amicus curiae.
1 The total included: (1) a 170-day credit for time spent in jail prior to his conviction; (2) "basic gain-time" of 2,640 days; (3) "additional [incentive]
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