Convict sentenced by "Keystone Cop" Judge loses habeas appeal at the 8th Circuit

Lawrence E. Lupien v. Harold W. Clarke Opinion U.S. Court of Appeals Case No. 04-1618 is a comedy of errors, turning a confusing sentence of 2 ten year consecutive terms into a federal case of the expost facto clause. the Federal Appeals court in St. Louis is not going to take up a lot of time parsing the possibly garbled words of a country judge handing out a sentence to a pot dealer. The Federal District Court Judge agreed that the expost facto clause required Lupien to receive a six year lower range sentence. The final result of the case after the 8th Cir. appeal will mean parole eligibility after ten years.