Missouri Board of Probation and Parole Missouri Cases

Derek Holmes appealed the circuit court's judgment in favor of the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole, which had denied his petition for declaratory judgment regarding the interpretation of parole regulations. Holmes argued the Parole Board misapplied regulations concerning his parole eligibility date for consecutive life sentences and that the circuit court erred in finding his claims time-barred. The appellate court affirmed the circuit court's judgment, holding that Holmes's petition was untimely under the one-year statute of limitations, as his cause of action accrued when he learned of the recalculated parole eligibility date and its rationale.

Christopher Fields challenged the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole's determination that he must serve 85% of his nine-year involuntary manslaughter sentence before parole eligibility, arguing a 2017 statutory amendment removed this requirement. The trial court granted the Board's motion for judgment on the pleadings. The appellate court affirmed, holding that Fields's claim for retroactive application of the amended statute was barred by § 1.160, which fixes punishment according to the law in effect at the time of the offense.

Lester Stone appealed the circuit court's grant of judgment on the pleadings to the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole in his declaratory judgment action. Stone sought a declaration that the 2019 amendments to § 558.019, RSMo, should be retroactively applied to recalculate his life sentences for first-degree robbery from fifty years to thirty years, thereby mandating an immediate parole hearing. The appellate court affirmed the circuit court's judgment, finding that Stone's offense of first-degree robbery is among those listed in subsection 2 of § 558.019, and thus he does not satisfy all elements required for the retroactive application of subsection 6.