Ward v. People.

2024 CO 76. No. 23SC328. Cruel and Unusual Punishment—Proportionality—Proportionality Review—Habitual Offenders and Career Criminals—Retroactive or Prospective Operation—Post-Conviction Relief—Sentence and Punishment—Reconsideration and Modification of Sentence—Time for Motion or Application—Time for Proceedings.

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 because Ward failed to establish justifiable excuse or excusable neglect for his untimely collateral attack, the court concluded that his motion is statutorily time-barred. The court of appeals’ judgment was affirmed.