Wheeler v. Tennessee Department of Correction

OPINION

BEN H. CANTRELL, Presiding Judge, M.S.

A prisoner sentenced to life imprisonment for armed robbery escaped from custody and subsequently committed two felonies. After he was recaptured, the Department of Correction declared that he would have to serve the remainder of his life sentence without parole, in accordance with the provisions of Tenn.Code. Ann. § 40-28-123(b). The prisoner filed a petition for a declaratory judgment, arguing among other things that the application of the statute to his sentence was a violation of the ex-post facto prohibition. The trial court dismissed the…