Williams v. Roe

No. 03-56064 (8-24-05). The use of an amended offense statute that eliminated judicial discretion in state sentencing was an ex post facto violation. The prior statute allowed the court to sentence the defendant convicted of different offenses for the same act (robbery and kidnapping for example) to be sentenced on either of them; the amended statute required a sentence on one of the provisions, but the higher one. This clearly was a heightened punishment.