State of West Virginia, Defendant Below, Appellee v. Charles J. James, Plaintiff Below, Appellant; State of West…

Summary

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia consolidated three direct appeals challenging the facial constitutionality of West Virginia Code § 62-12-26 (2009), which mandates a period of supervised release of up to fifty years as part of the sentence for designated sex and child-abuse offenses. The court held the statute is not facially unconstitutional as cruel and unusual punishment, as violative of procedural due process (including a vagueness challenge to its conditions), or under double jeopardy principles, because supervised release is a legislatively authorized additional punishment imposed as part of the sentence upon conviction of an enumerated offense, requiring no jury fact-finding beyond the conviction itself. The court also found the as-applied thirty-year and twenty-five-year terms imposed on James and Hedrick not unconstitutionally disproportionate, and declined to reach James's double jeopardy challenge to the revocation-without-credit provision as prematurely raised. All three sentencing orders were affirmed.