Robert Montague v. Douglas Vinzant, Warden, Washington State Penitentiary and Slade Gorton, Attorney General of the State of Washington

Montague was arrested in January 1967 on a motor vehicle violation and a search of his car revealed marijuana. He was arraigned in February on a charge of felony possession of narcotic drugs, was convicted on April 20, 1967, and sentenced to a minimum of five and a maximum of 20 years in state prison. His conviction was upheld on appeal.

In 1969 the state legislature reclassified possession of marijuana from a felony to a misdemeanor. It subsequently authorized the State Board of Prison Terms and Parole to reduce the mandatory minimum term for persons convicted under the felony statute to not less than the minimum under the misdemeanor statute. RCW 9.95.040 note.

The Board gave Montague a three-year mandatory minimum term and placed him on parole in August 1970. His maximum sentence was not altered, and parole has since been revoked and reinstated on more than one occasion. He has not completed his sentence.

In 1978 Montague sought a writ of habeas corpus in federal court, asserting that his conviction violated equal protection for two reasons: (1) he did not benefit from the later decision of the legislature to make possession of marijuana a misdemeanor because the Washington…