McDonald v. People.

2024 CO 75. No. 23SC381. Cruel and Unusual Punishment—Proportionality—Proportionality Review—Habitual Offenders and Career Criminals—Retroactive or Prospective Operation—Post-Conviction Relief—Sentence and Punishment.

December 16, 2024

The supreme court reviewed de novo whether Wells-Yates v. People, 2019 CO 90M, 454 P.3d 191, announced new substantive rules of constitutional law that apply retroactively to cases on collateral review. The court concluded that although some of Wells-Yates’s holdings announced new rules, those rules are procedural, not substantive. Accordingly, Wells-Yates’s holdings don’t apply retroactively to cases on collateral review, and McDonald isn’t entitled to a second proportionality review of his habitual criminal sentence. The court of appeals’ judgment was affirmed.