Court Opinion

ID: 9576567
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:26:01.175632+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:10:00.433188
License: Public Domain

DENIAL OF PETITION FOR REHEARING
The State of Oklahoma has requested that this Court grant rehearing in the above captioned case on the basis that the decision to remand the case for resentenc-ing runs afoul of the section of the Oklahoma statutes which prohibits retroactive application of statutes without specific authority from the legislature, 22 O.S.1981, § 3. The death sentence meted out to Allen by the jury was reversed by this Court and remanded to the trial court in order that consideration could be made as to all the appropriate punishments, including the option of life without parole. The State contends that this result is improper in that Section 3 of Title 22 prohibits retroactive application of newly passed or revised statutes.
We disagree with the State’s conclusion and hold that the provisions of Section 3 are applicable only to Title 22. In Section 1 of Title 22, the Legislature provided that “[t]his Chapter shall be known *378as the code of criminal procedure.” Section 3 provides “[n]o part of this code is retroactive unless expressly so declared.” Title 21 and its definitions of crimes and their respective punishments is not a part of the code defined in Title 22. It is distinctly different from the code of criminal procedures and is defined as a “penal code” by 21 O.S.1981, § 1. Title 21 contains additional descriptive explanation of the term “this code” that is not found in Title 22. In 21 O.S.1981, § 2, the Legislature provided, “[t]he words ‘this code’ as used in the ‘penal code’ shall be construed to mean ‘Statutes of this State.’” This additional phraseology is absent from Title 22, lending further certainty to our limiting application of 22 O.S.1981, § 3.
Accordingly, we find that the application of the subsequent revision to 21 O.S.1981, § 701.10, establishing the penalty of life without parole for Murder in the First Degree, is not controlled by Section 3 of Title 22.
PETITION FOR REHEARING IS DENIED.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
LANE, P.J., and BRETT, PARKS and JOHNSON, JJ., concur.
LUMPKIN, V.P.J., concurs in results.