Court Opinion

ID: 9674737
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:34:32.952859+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:29.469960
License: Public Domain

McCown, J.,
concurring in the result.
No branch of government can increase a sentence, or any part of it, once the sentence has become final. Neither the Legislature nor this court can reduce a sentence, or any part of it, once the sentence has become final, because the power of clemency and the power to grant respites, reprieves, pardons, or commutation of sentence is vested solely in the Board of Pardons under the provisions of article IV, § 13, of the Nebraska Constitution. See, also, Johnson & Cunningham v. Exon, 199 Neb. 154, 256 N.W.2d 869 (1977).
Any attempt by the Legislature to reduce a sen*870tence which has become final is not only interference with the executive power but is also an interference with the power of the judiciary. It has long been settled that the Legislature is without power to invade the province of the judiciary by setting aside, modifying, or impairing a final judgment rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction. See McCullough v. Virginia, 172 U.S. 102, 19 S. Ct. 134, 43 L. Ed. 382 (1898), and a legion of other cases from every jurisdiction. In Nebraska, City of Wayne v. Adams, 156 Neb. 297, 56 N.W.2d 117 (1952).
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-2204.01 (Reissue 1979) provides: “In any criminal proceeding in which a sentence of confinement has been imposed and the particular law under which such sentence was pronounced is thereafter amended to decrease the maximum period of confinement which may be imposed, then any person sentenced under the former law shall be entitled to his discharge from custody when he has served the maximum period of confinement authorized by the new law, notwithstanding the fact that the court may have ordered a longer period of confinement under the authority of the former law.”
Insofar as that section purports to apply to any sentence which has become final, the section is clearly an invasion of the powers of the executive and judicial branches of government and is unconstitutional.
In the case at bar the sentence reviewed on this appeal, and now affirmed by a majority of this court, was a lawful sentence in all respects at the time it was pronounced by the trial court. It had also been placed in execution.
The power to reduce that sentence, or any part of it, rests in the judicial discretion of this court until the sentence becomes final. In exercising that judicial power this court will attempt to ascertain the intent of the Legislature as to amendments relating to punishment, in accordance with State v. Ran*871dolph, 186 Neb. 297, 183 N.W.2d 225 (1971).
This court has no power to increase a sentence, or any part of it, but even if we had the power, a sentence could not be increased beyond the maximum allowed by law at the time of the commission of the crime. Any attempt by this court, or by the Legislature, to increase a sentence, or any part of it, by retroactive action of that sort would be clearly ex post facto.