Ervin Isom, Petitioner/cross-Respondent v. the People of the State of Colorado, Respondent/cross-Petitioner

Summary

The court held that a habitual sex offender's indeterminate sentence must have a minimum term of at least three times the presumptive maximum for the offense, with authority to increase that minimum to twice the enhanced amount upon a finding of extraordinary aggravating circumstances. Because the presumptive maximum here was six years, the permissible minimum ranged from eighteen to thirty-six years, making Isom's forty-years-to-life sentence illegal. Justice Márquez, dissenting, would have held that the governing statutes impose no cap on the minimum term and therefore would have upheld the sentence.