Donald Moore v. Tennessee Board of Probation and Parole

Following a hearing in October of 2000, three out of seven members of the Board of Paroles voted to parole a prisoner who was serving a life sentence for murder. Because of a 1997 statute that requires four members of the Board to concur on the parole of prisoners convicted of certain grave offenses, parole was denied. The prisoner did not seek review of that decision. Parole was again denied after a March 2003 hearing, with only two Board members voting for parole. The prisoner filed a petition for common law writ of certiorari, contending that the Board's refusal to release him after the 2000 Board vote violated the constitutional prohibition against ex post facto enactments. He argued that he was entitled to the benefit of an earlier statute which allowed prisoners to be paroled, regardless of offense, if they could obtain the positive votes of three members of the Board. The trial court dismissed the petition, holding that it was untimely, and that in any case, the application of the 1997 statute did not implicate any ex post facto concerns. We affirm the trial court.