06-04-08 State of New Jersey v. Steven R. Fortin
A-3579-07T4
Defendant convicted of capital murder committed in 1994
cannot be sentenced to life-without-parole because at the time
of offense the maximum parole ineligibility term was thirty
years and under the December 17, 2007 amendments to the murder
statute the defendant can no longer present mitigating factors
to reduce the sentence to such term if not outweighed by
aggravating factors. The State did not advocate trying the
matter as a capital case would have been tried to achieve a
sentence of life-without-parole. Moreover, the holding is
narrow as amendments such as the life-without-parole provisions
of N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3 and No Early Release Act statutes would
affect the sentences of capital murders after those statutes
took effect.
