STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. E.W. (A-0146-08T4)

STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. E.W. A-0146-08T4 (4-27-10)
We held that defendant was entitled to post-conviction
relief consisting of vacation of an illegal sentence when
evidence demonstrated that defendant had committed a sexual
assault on a juvenile in 1979 when the statute of limitations
for the offense was five years, the statute of limitations on
the offense had expired prior to the amendment of N.J.S.A. 2C:1-
6 in 1986 to exempt sexual assault from the five-year bar, and
defendant was not indicted for the crime until 1991. Any
application of the 1986 version of N.J.S.A. 2C:1-6 to preserve
the claim against defendant violated the Constitution's Ex Post
Facto Clause, and thus both his conviction and sentence were
illegal.