Case Title: New Jersey v. Ryan

Citation: 

Docket Number: 

State: new-jersey

Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

Date: 2022-02-07T00:00:00Z

Document:
SYLLABUS

This syllabus is not part of the Court’s opinion. It has been prepared by the Office of the
Clerk for the convenience of the reader. It has been neither reviewed nor approved by the
Court. In the interest of brevity, portions of an opinion may not have been summarized.

                       State v. Samuel Ryan (A-65-20) (085165)

Argued November 29, 2021 -- Decided February 7, 2022

SOLOMON, J., writing for the Court.

       In this appeal, the Court considers whether crimes committed by a defendant while
under the age of eighteen may count as predicate offenses under the “Three Strikes Law,”
which mandates a sentence of life imprisonment without parole for a third-time offender.

        At the age of sixteen, defendant committed two armed robberies within two days;
he was convicted of two counts of first-degree robbery in 1990. In February 1996, less
than three years after his release from prison, defendant committed two more armed
robberies. Defendant was indicted separately for, and convicted of, each of the two 1996
robberies. Upon defendant’s conviction for the second 1996 robbery, the State moved to
sentence him to an extended term pursuant to the Three Strikes Law, predicated upon
(1) his 1990 conviction, (2) his conviction for the first 1996 robbery, and (3) his
conviction for the second 1996 robbery. The court sentenced defendant accordingly.

        Defendant unsuccessfully appealed his convictions and sentence and thereafter
filed eleven post-conviction release (PCR) petitions between 1999 and 2012. In 2018,
defendant filed his twelfth PCR petition -- a motion to correct an illegal sentence
-- relying on the United States Supreme Court’s holding in Miller v. Alabama,