Wendell Rogers v. Arkansas Department of Correction

Summary

The court held that Rogers’s parole eligibility for his fifteen-year firearm enhancement must be determined under the law in effect when he committed the underlying offense. Because the later amendment imposing a seventy-percent parole requirement applied prospectively and did not authorize denying parole for an offense committed before its effective date, the circuit court misinterpreted the statute. The court reversed and remanded with instructions to issue the writ and require a recalculation of parole eligibility for the enhancement.