Ex Parte McCormick

In these three petitions for writs of mandamus, which have been consolidated for purposes of issuing one opinion, we are called upon to construe the legislature's 2000 amendment to Alabama's Split-Sentence Act, § 15-18-8, Ala. Code 1975, ("the 2000 amendment"). The Court of Criminal Appeals held in each action that in splitting the sentence of a defendant who has received a sentence of more than 15 years but not more than 20 years, a trial court must sentence the defendant to a mandatory minimum of 3 years of actual confinement and may not suspend any portion of that mandatory minimum term.…