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FOR IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE NEWS RELEASE # 6

FROM: CLERK OF SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA

The Opinions handed down on the 26th day of January, 2007, are as follows:

BY KNOLL, J.:

2006-KP-2223 C/W 2006-KP-2226

STATE OF LOUISIANA v. WESLEY DICK (Parish of St. Tammany) (Distribution of Heroin) STATE OF LOUISIANA v. MELVIN SMITH (Parish of Orleans) (Possession With Intent to Distribute Heroin) Accordingly, the judgment of the First Circuit Court of Appeal is affirmed. The State v. Dick matter is remanded to the district court for execution of the original sentence, in accordance with the court of appeal's ruling. The appellate court decision in State v. Smith is reversed; defendant's original sentence of life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of probation or suspension of sentence is reinstated and the case is remanded to the district court for execution of sentence. 06-KP-2223 AFFIRMED. 06-KK-2226 REVERSED AND REMANDED. CALOGERO, C.J., concurs in the result and assigns reasons. JOHNSON, J., dissents and assigns reasons. TRAYLOR, J., concurs in the result and assigns reasons.

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SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA NO. 06-KP-2223 STATE OF LOUISIANA VERSUS WESLEY DICK ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL, FIRST CIRCUIT, PARISH OF ST. TAMMANY c/w NO. 06-KK-2226 STATE OF LOUISIANA VERSUS MELVIN SMITH ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH CIRCUIT, PARISH OF ORLEANS

KNOLL, Justice These consolidated criminal cases concern sentences imposed under prior law and whether La. Rev. Stat. 15:308, pertaining to ameliorating sentences as enacted by 2006 La. Acts No. 45, provides authority for the sentencing courts to modify the defendants' sentences. At the time of the defendants' offenses, convictions and sentencing, La. Rev. Stat. 40:966B(1) provided a penalty of mandatory life imprisonment. In 2001, the legislature amended La. Rev. Stat. 40:966B(1) to reduce the penalty for distribution or possession with intent to distribute heroin. For the following reasons we find that although in La. Rev. Stat. 15:308, the legislature mandates retroactive application of the more lenient penalty provisions to those

persons who committed crimes, who were convicted or who were sentenced according to La. Rev. Stat. 40:966B, the legislature did not provide that these offenders may seek resentencing in the courts, the judicial branch of government, because they are constitutionally required to seek relief in the executive branch. Resentencing these offenders in order to retroactively apply the more lenient penalty provisions to offenders whose convictions and sentences are final is, in effect, a commutation of a valid and final sentence, which falls within the executive branch of government, not the judicial branch. Therefore, La. Rev. Stat. 15:308C correctly provides the offenders' exclusive remedy is before the Louisiana Risk Review Panel, which falls within the executive branch of government.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY On October 12, 2000, Wesley Dick was found guilty by a jury for the offense of distribution of heroin in May 1999, a violation of La. Rev. Stat. 40:966A(1) (2000). In January 2001, the trial court sentenced him to life imprisonment at hard labor without benefit of probation or suspension of sentence. See La. Rev. Stat. 40:966B(1) (prior to amendment by Acts 2001, No. 403,

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