Case ID: tenn_202/html/0036-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Mr. Justice SwepstoN", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Malcolm Conrad, Plaintiff in Error v. State of Tennessee
    
      (Jackson,
    
    April Term, 1957.)
    Opinion filed May 3, 1957.
    E. C. Kennedy, Decaturville, for plaintiff.
    Nat Tipton, Advocate General, for the State.
   Mr. Justice SwepstoN

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The plaintiff in error was convicted of driving while intoxicated and was given the increased punishment provided by T.C.A. sec. 59-1035, the proof showing this to be his third offense, which occurred in August of 1955, that is, subsequent to the enactment of this provision of the statute of 1953.

All of the several assignments of error'are predicated on the insistence that the date of occurrence of the two prior convictions is not shown by the proof to have been also subsequent to the Act of 1953. It is, therefore, insisted that said Act is ex post facto as to this accused.

All of the authorities bold that these habitual offenders statutes are not ex post facto even where the prior convictions occurred before the effective date of such statute. See 25 Am. Jur. 263, and especially 58 A.L.R. 21.

The judgment below is affirmed.