Opinion ID: 2106692
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Retrospective Operation

Text: Laney and Rentschler both argue that the amended section 558.011 violates Missouri's prohibition on retrospective laws. Mo. Const. Art. I, sec. 13. The Missouri prohibition on retrospective laws is broader than the federal proscription of ex post facto laws. The section prohibits a law that creates a new obligation, imposes a new duty, or attaches a new disability with respect to transactions or considerations already past. F.R. v. St. Charles County Sheriff's Dept., 301 S.W.3d 56, 61 (Mo. banc 2010); Squaw Creek Drainage Dist. v. Turney, 235 Mo. 80, 138 S.W. 12, 16 (Mo.1911). It also prohibits a law that impairs a vested right. Id. The board of probation and parole has plenary discretion in granting conditional release. Subsection 5 of both iterations of the statute clearly state that [t]he date of conditional release from the prison term may be extended up to a maximum of the entire sentence of imprisonment by the board of probation and parole. Section 558.011, RSMo Supp.1990 and RSMo 1978. There are no limitations, conditions or carve outs. The conditional release statute vests a right in the board of probation and parole to use the conditional release program as a way to manage the department of corrections' prison populations. The inmates have no right of conditional release until the board actually issues a date for conditional release. Cooper v. Holden, 189 S.W.3d 614 (Mo.App.2006). Because none of the claimants in either case had been issued such a date by the board, their claim to a vested right fails as a matter of law. Likewise, the law does not create a new disability. The board always has retained plenary discretion as to whether to issue a conditional release date. The board's consideration of granting conditional release to any of the inmates was a mere possibility, nothing more. It is insufficient to support a claim for the creation of a disability. Section 558.011 does not offend section 13 of article I. Point denied.