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Simple English definitions for legal terms
ex post facto
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A quick definition of ex post facto:
Ex post facto means punishing someone for something that was legal when they did it. This is not allowed by the United States Constitution. It applies to laws made by Congress and by states. The punishment cannot be made worse after the crime was committed, and the person cannot be denied a defense that was available at the time. However, this rule does not always apply to court decisions. The Year and a Day Rule is an example of a common law doctrine that is affected by ex post facto.
A more thorough explanation:
Definition: Ex post facto is a Latin term that means "from a thing done afterward." It refers to a criminal statute that punishes actions retroactively, making conduct illegal that was legal when originally performed.
Examples:
- If a law is passed today that makes it illegal to drive a red car, and someone who drove a red car yesterday is punished for it, that would be an ex post facto law.
- If a person is convicted of a crime and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but then a new law is passed that increases the punishment for that crime to 20 years, the person cannot be retroactively sentenced to 20 years under the ex post facto clause.
These examples illustrate how ex post facto laws punish people for actions that were legal at the time they were performed or increase the punishment for a crime after it was committed. This violates the constitutional prohibition against ex post facto laws.