FILED: April 6, 2000

GEORGE F. HAMEL,

Petitioner on Review,

v.

DAN JOHNSON,
Superintendent,
Snake River Correctional Institution,

Respondent on Review.

On review from the Court of Appeals.*

Argued and submitted March 3, 2000.

Bob Pangburn, Caldwell, Idaho, argued the cause and filed the petition for petitioner on review.

Kelly Knivila, Assistant Attorney General, Salem, argued the cause and filed the brief for respondent on review. With her on the brief were Hardy Myers, Attorney General, and Michael D. Reynolds, Solicitor General.

Eric M. Cumfer, Salem, filed a brief for amicus curiae Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.

Before Carson, Chief Justice, and Gillette, Van Hoomissen, Durham, Leeson, and Riggs Justices.**

LEESON, J.

The decision of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded to the Court of Appeals for further proceedings.

**Kulongoski, J., did not participate in the consideration or decision of this case.

*Appeal from Malheur County Circuit Court.

158 Or App 276, 974 P2d 260 (1999).

LEESON, J.

In this habeas corpus proceeding, ORS 34.310 et seq., the Court of Appeals dismissed as moot petitioner's challenge to a January 1997 order of the Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision (Board). Hamel v. Johnson, 158 Or App 276, 974 P2d 260 (1999). See ORS 34.310 (allowing prosecution of writ of habeas corpus to inquire into cause of imprisonment). For the reasons that follow, we reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals and remand the case to that court for further proceedings.

In 1991, petitioner was convicted of two counts of first-degree sodomy, ORS 163.405, for crimes that he committed in 1988. Petitioner was sentenced to consecutive 10- and 20-year terms of imprisonment in the custody of the Oregon Department of Corrections (Department). Because petitioner had committed his crimes before November 1, 1989, he was subject to the parole matrix system that the legislature had established in 1977. Or Laws 1997, ch 372,