Oscar Archie Clifton v. Attorney General of the State of California Board of Prison Terms

We are called upon to decide whether a district court, on its own initiative, can refuse to enforce a judgment order because of a change in the law after the judgment became final.

I

In August of 1976, Clifton was convicted in California state court of first degree murder and sentenced to death. On direct appeal, his sentence was modified to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. In 1977, section 3041.5 of the California Penal Code became effective, providing prisoners with annual parole hearings. That section was amended in 1982 to provide for parole hearings every two years “if the [Board of Prison Terms] finds that it is not reasonable to expect parole would be granted at a hearing during the following year and states the bases for the finding.” Cal.Penal Code § 3041.-5(b)(2)(A).

After Clifton’s parole hearing in 1983, the Board of Prison Terms (“BPT”) scheduled his next hearing for two years later. In 1987, after exhausting his remedies in state court, he filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus, claiming that the application of section 3041.5(b)(2)(A) to him was unconstitutional. The district court granted his petition, agreeing with Clifton that the denial of…