Legal Question in Criminal Law in California
Penal code
I need to know the Penal Code where it states: When a crime is alleged that whatever laws are in place at that specific time are the laws in which the courts must govern themselves and use as guide lines in processing the case as well as in sentencing.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Penal code
According to Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution, "no State shall pass any ex post facto Law.'' A similar provision that applies to Congress is found in Section 9 of the same article. At first glance these constitutional prohibitions seem simple enough--retroactive laws violate the Constitution. Unfortunately, the issue is not so simple. With one ruling in 1798, the Supreme Court succeeded in muddling the issue of ex post facto laws by holding that the prohibition of retroactive laws applies only to criminal, not civil, laws.
The Supreme Court first held that the constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws applied only to criminal laws in the landmark opinion of Calder v. Bull (1798).
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