Opinion ID: 1984491
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Ex Post Facto Argument.

Text: The United States Constitution forbids ex post facto laws. See U.S. Const. art. I, § 10, cl. 1. [L]aws that impose punishment for an act that was not punishable when committed or that increase the quantum of punishment provided for the crime when it was committed violate this constitutional provision. State v. Pickens, 558 N.W.2d 396, 397 (Iowa 1997). Stoen claims the 1997 amendments to section 321J.2 have impermissibly increased the punishment for his offense. Our analysis begins with an identification of the offense being punished by section 321J.2(4), the codification of the 1997 amendments. In general, an enhancement statute such as section 321J.2(4) does not punish the defendant for his or her prior convictions, but instead punish[es] the defendant as a repeat offender for the latest offense on the basis of his or her propensity for misconduct. 16B Am.Jur.2d Constitutional Law § 656, at 141 (1998) (emphasis added). In other words, the enhancement of punishment is for the pending offense, not the previous offenses. See State v. O'Malley, 593 N.W.2d 517, 518 (Iowa 1999); State v. Soppe, 374 N.W.2d 649, 652 (Iowa 1985); accord State v. Jones, 214 Kan. 568, 521 P.2d 278, 280 (1974); State v. Levey, 122 N.H. 375, 445 A.2d 1089, 1090 (1982). The pending offense here is the OWI committed on August 21, 1997. At that time the OWI statute provided that the offense would be classified for purposes of sentencing based on the number of OWI offenses committed by the defendant in the prior twelve years. Therefore, Stoen's argument that the 1997 amendments increased the punishment provided for his crime when it was committed is erroneous. The punishment of Stoen's violation of section 321J.2 as a third offense is exactly in accord with the statute as it existed at the time Stoen committed his offense on August 21, 1997. Accordingly, the amended statute does not operate as an ex post facto law as applied to Stoen. See State v. Rolen, 662 So.2d 446, 448-49 (La.1995) (holding there was no ex post facto violation where amendment enlarged the cleansing period for prior OWIs from five years to ten years); State v. Chapman, 685 A.2d 423, 424-25 (Me.1996) (holding statutory amendment that allowed a ten-year review of prior OWI offenses as opposed to the former six-year period did not violate the Ex Post Facto Clause); Levey, 445 A.2d at 1090 (Merely allowing a conviction obtained before the amendment to be used in the assessment of the penalty for a subsequent offense does not violate the constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws.); cf. Danks v. State, 619 P.2d 720, 722 (Alaska 1980) (rejecting defendant's argument that three-year revocation of license required by amended law would constitute an ex post facto law as applied to him because his first two offenses occurred prior to the statutory enactment).