North Dakota v. Comes
Annotate this CaseMarlon Comes appealed a Second Amended Criminal Judgment, asserting the judgment imposed an illegal sentence. In 1996, Comes pleaded guilty to a class AA felony charge of murder and a class A felony charge of robbery. On October 18, 1996, Comes was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole on the murder charge and a concurrent ten years imprisonment on the Robbery charge, with credit for 307 days he had served in custody pending the disposition of his case. In 2018 the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation [DOCR], in conjunction with considering when Comes would be eligible for parole, requested the district court amend the judgment to include a calculation of Comes’ life expectancy as of the date of sentencing. Pursuant to the DOCR’s request, the district court issued an amended judgment on August 7, 2018, incorporating a life expectancy calculation. The Second Amended Criminal Judgment provided Comes would be eligible for consideration by the parole board after thirty years of imprisonment, less sentence reduction earned for good conduct. Comes argued the sentence was illegal because his eligibility for parole should have been determined by N.D.C.C. 12.1-32- 09.1 and be equal to 85% of his life expectancy calculation of 23.8 years, less any sentence reduction earned for good conduct. Finding no reversible error, the North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed.
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