Opinion ID: 777955
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Retroactivity of Ryan

Text: 14 The Government first argues that relief under Ryan is unavailable to Dixon because his appeal is on collateral review. As the Government points out, the New York Court of Appeals has held that Ryan is retroactive to cases that were pending on direct appeal at the time Ryan was decided on December 16, 1993, People v.Hill, 85 N.Y.2d 256, 262, 648 N.E.2d 455, 458, 624 N.Y.S.2d 79, 82 (1995), and Dixon's direct appeal was completed six years earlier, see People v. Dixon, 130 A.D.2d 680, 516 N.Y.S.2d 16 (2d Dep't), leave denied, 70 N.Y.2d 645, 512 N.E.2d 563, 518 N.Y.S.2d 1037 (1987). 15 The Government's argument fails, however, for the reasons given in Fiore v. White, 531 U.S. 225, 121 S.Ct. 712, 148 L.Ed.2d 629 (2001). In Fiore, the Supreme Court explained that where a state's highest court for the first time interprets a criminal statute to require proof of a particular element and that interpretation does not create new law but merely clarifies what the law was at the time of a defendant's conviction, there is no issue of retroactivity. Id. at 228, 121 S.Ct. 712. The state court's interpretation of the proof required must be applied on collateral review to prevent a violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which guards against convicting a defendant without proof beyond a reasonable doubt on each element of his crime. Id. at 228-29, 121 S.Ct. 712 (citing Jackson, 443 U.S. at 316, 99 S.Ct. 2781; In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 364, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970)). The New York Court of Appeals has declared that its interpretation of the criminal possession statute in Ryan did not create new law. See Hill 85 N.Y.2d at 262, 648 N.E.2d at 458, 624 N.Y.S.2d at 82 (Since Ryan construed the words of a statute, it established no new legal principle.). Therefore, Dixon's case is governed on collateral review by Ryan's holding that one of the elements of the criminal possession statute under which he was convicted is knowledge of the weight of the drugs possessed.