KRS v. Director of Patuxent Institution

Prescott, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Donald Krs seeks leave to appeal from a denial, by the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, of his request for relief. After being convicted of robbery and sentenced to ten years’ confinement, he was, on June 8, 1960, adjudicated a defective delinquent. Pursuant to Code (1957), Article 31B, Section 9 (b), his sentence was suspended, and he was committed to the Patuxent Institution for an indeterminate period.

On June 11, 1962, he petitioned the Circuit Court for Baltimore County for a redetermination of his defective delinquency. At the time he was determined to be a defective delinquent on June 8, 1960, Article 3IB, Section 10 (a), provided that a defective delinquent could petition for a redetermination after he had been confined for two years. In 1961, the Legislature amended this Section so as to provide, inter alia, that before a defective delinquent was entitled to a redetermination, he must have been confined for at least two years after his commitment as a defective delinquent, and have been confined for a total period, including any period of confinement under his original sentence prior to commitment as a defective delinquent, equal to two-thirds of his original sentence. Code (1962 Cum.

Supp.), Article 31B, Section 10 (a). On June 27, 1962, Judge Menchine denied his petition for a redetermination on the ground that Section 10 (a), as amended in 1961, was ap ⁶⁴⁸ plicable, and a sufficient period of time thereunder had not elapsed to warrant a redetermination. Krs did not appeal from this decision, but, after about two and one-half months had expired, he, on September 11, 1962, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. In this petition, he claimed that Judge Menchine was in error in two respects: that Section 10 (a), as amended, did not apply to his case because it would “violate his constitutional guarantee to protection from Ex Post Facto laws; 1 and (2) that since his sentence was suspended at the time of his commitment, he “no longer has a sentence to figure two thirds of.” Judge Barrett heard the petition.

He filed an able opinion, in which he stated that he was ruling upon a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, upheld Judge Menchine’s