Lavallie v. North Dakota

The State appealed a district court order granting post-conviction relief and reducing the sentence of Julie Roubideaux Lavallie from a twenty-year term of imprisonment to a ten-year term. In 2017, Lavallie pleaded guilty to a third delivery offense of methamphetamine and she was sentenced to the mandatory minimum twenty-year sentence consistent with the then applicable law. Prior to Lavallie pleading guilty, the legislature had reduced the mandatory sentence from twenty years to ten years for a third delivery of methamphetamine offense. However, she pleaded guilty, was sentenced, and the judgment was entered before August 1, 2017, the effective date of the legislative change. On March 19, 2018, Lavallie filed a request for post-conviction relief under N.D.C.C. 29-32.1-01(f), arguing the modification of the mandatory sentence was a significant change in the law which, in the interest of justice, should be applied retroactively. The district court issued findings and an order granting Lavallie post-conviction relief. Because Lavallie’s sentence was final before the change to the statute took effect, the North Dakota Supreme Court concluded the district court erred in reducing her sentence.