State v. Rahee Lane (085726) (Essex County & Statewide) ( 2022 )


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  •                                      SYLLABUS
    This syllabus is not part of the Court’s opinion. It has been prepared by the Office
    of the Clerk for the convenience of the reader. It has been neither reviewed nor
    approved by the Court and may not summarize all portions of the opinion.
    State v. Rahee Lane (A-17-21) (085726)
    Argued February 1, 2022 -- Decided June 16, 2022 -- Revised June 21, 2022
    PATTERSON, J., writing for the Court.
    In 2020, the Legislature amended N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1 to add a new mitigating
    factor fourteen: “[t]he defendant was under 26 years of age at the time of the
    commission of the offense.” N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14). It provided that “[t]his new
    act shall take effect immediately.” L. 2020, c. 110, § 2. In this appeal, the Court
    considers defendant Rahee Lane’s argument that the new mitigating factor should be
    applied to defendants who were under twenty-six years old at the time of their
    offenses, if their direct appeals were pending when the statute was amended.
    At age nineteen, defendant was arrested following a March 2015 home
    invasion. After rejecting the State’s original plea offer, defendant pled guilty to
    certain offenses in accordance with a negotiated plea agreement. Defendant was
    sentenced in December 2017. At the sentencing hearing, defense counsel told the
    court that defendant “was a young man when this offense took place.” He urged the
    court to consider defendant’s age, learning disabilities, and remorse when imposing
    sentence. The State argued for the recommended sixteen-year term of
    imprisonment, relying on the gravity of defendant’s offenses and on defendant’s
    juvenile adjudications for robbery and his violations of parole.
    The sentencing judge found three aggravating factors and one mitigating
    factor; he concluded the aggravating factors outweighed any mitigating factors that
    applied. Nonetheless, citing evidence that defendant “did not have a full grasp” of
    the State’s proofs when he rejected the State’s initial plea offer, the judge imposed a
    term of incarceration two years shorter than the term contemplated by defendant’s
    plea agreement.
    Defendant appealed his sentence. In October 2020, while defendant’s appeal
    was pending before the Appellate Division but before oral argument on that appeal,
    the Legislature amended N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b) to include mitigating factor fourteen.
    The Appellate Division affirmed defendant’s sentence, concluding that the new
    mitigating factor could be considered only in sentences imposed after the effective
    date of the amendment. The Court granted certification. 
    248 N.J. 534
     (2021).
    1
    HELD: The Court construes N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14) to be prospective, finding in
    the statutory language no indication that mitigating factor fourteen applies to
    defendants sentenced prior to the provision’s effective date. The Court views
    N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14)’s legislative history to confirm the Legislature’s intent to
    authorize sentencing courts to consider the new mitigating factor in imposing a
    sentence on or after the date of the amendment.
    1. In November 2019, the New Jersey Criminal Sentencing and Disposition
    Commission (CSDC) proposed nine sentencing reforms. Its first three
    recommendations pertained to mandatory minimum sentences, and its fourth
    recommendation urged the Legislature to ensure the retroactive application of
    statutes incorporating its first, second and third recommendations. In its fifth
    recommendation, the CSDC suggested “that the Legislature create a new mitigating
    factor that allows judges to consider a defendant’s youthfulness at the time of the
    offense,” and it proposed, as the new mitigating factor, that “[t]he defendant was
    under 26 years of age at the time of the commission of the offense.” In contrast to
    its approach in its first three recommendations for sentencing reform, the CSDC did
    not recommend that the amendment codifying the new mitigating factor apply
    retroactively to defendants sentenced before the new law’s effective date. The
    Legislature expressly based N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14) on the CSDC’s fifth
    recommendation, and the language adopted by the Legislature in that statute
    precisely tracked the CSDC’s proposed language in its fifth recommendation. The
    Legislature neither mandated retroactive application of the new mitigating factor,
    nor created a procedure to apply that mitigating factor to defendants sentenced prio r
    to the date of the amendment. L. 2020, c. 110. Instead, it stated that the new
    amendment “shall take effect immediately.” 
    Ibid.
     (pp. 9-11)
    2. Against that backdrop, the Court considers whether the Legislature intended
    N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14) to apply prospectively. When the Legislature enacts a
    criminal statute, the new law is presumed to have solely prospective application.
    The presumption is overcome only if the Legislature clearly intended a retrospective
    application of the statute through its use of words so clear, strong, and imperative
    that no meaning can be ascribed to them other than to apply the statute retroactively.
    The Court has identified well-settled rules concerning the circumstances in which
    statutes should be applied retroactively, where there is no clear expression of intent
    by the Legislature that the statute is to be prospectively applied. First, there are
    statutes in which the Legislature has expressed its intent that the statute be applied
    retroactively. Second, ameliorative or curative statutes may be given retroactive
    application. Third, in the absence of a clear expression of legislative intent that the
    statute is to be applied prospectively, such considerations as the expectations of the
    parties may warrant retroactive application of a statute. However, courts look to
    those exceptions only in instances where there is no clear expression of intent by the
    Legislature that the statute is to be prospectively applied only. (pp. 12-14)
    2
    3. Here, the statute is devoid of the slightest hint that the Legislature intended
    mitigating factor fourteen to apply retroactively. Indeed, the Court has repeatedly
    construed language stating that a provision is to be effective immediately, or
    effective immediately on a given date, to signal prospective application. The
    Legislature’s use of the language “take effect immediately” when it adopted
    N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14) thus connotes prospective application. The legislative
    history confirms the Legislature’s intent that mitigating factor fourteen apply
    prospectively only. The Legislature made clear that when it amended N.J.S.A.
    2C:44-1(b) to add the new mitigating factor, it adopted the CSDC’s fifth
    recommendation in its 2019 Annual Report. And although the CSDC urged the
    Governor and Legislature to apply three of its sentencing proposals retroactively to
    previously sentenced defendants, it did not mention retroactive application in the
    recommendation that led to N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14). The amendment’s language
    and history bespeak a legislative intent to apply the statute prospectively to
    defendants sentenced on or after its effective date of October 19, 2020. (pp. 14-17)
    AFFIRMED.
    JUSTICE ALBIN agrees that the law adding mitigating factor fourteen
    expresses a prospective application but takes a different view of what prospective
    application means. Stressing the new law’s ameliorative nature, Justice Albin writes
    that, in those cases where the defendants’ sentencing appeals were pending when the
    new law took “effect,” prospective application does not and should not foreclose the
    Appellate Division from reviewing whether, in a particular case, the failure of a trial
    judge to consider a defendant’s youth as a mitigating factor resulted in a clearly
    excessive sentence. Justice Albin therefore dissents from the majority’s holding that
    deprives appellate courts from prospectively applying the new law in cases where
    the failure to take youth into account results in a clearly excessive sentence. Based
    on the seriousness of defendant Lane’s crimes and the sentencing court’s thoughtful
    consideration of the applicable mitigating factors, Justice Albin concurs in the
    majority’s judgment to deny the relief defendant seeks.
    CHIEF JUSTICE RABNER; JUSTICES SOLOMON and PIERRE-LOUIS; and
    JUDGE FUENTES (temporarily assigned) join in JUSTICE PATTERSON’s
    opinion. JUSTICE ALBIN filed a separate opinion, dissenting in part and
    concurring in the judgment.
    3
    SUPREME COURT OF NEW JERSEY
    A-17 September Term 2021
    085726
    State of New Jersey,
    Plaintiff-Respondent,
    v.
    Rahee Lane,
    Defendant-Appellant.
    On certification to the Superior Court,
    Appellate Division.
    Argued               Decided                  Revised
    February 1, 2022       June 16, 2022           June 21, 2022
    Robert Carter Pierce argued the cause for appellant
    (Robert Carter Pierce, on the briefs).
    Caroline C. Galda, Special Deputy Attorney
    General/Acting Assistant Prosecutor, argued the cause for
    respondent (Theodore N. Stephens, II, Acting Essex
    County Prosecutor, attorney; Caroline C. Galda, of
    counsel and on the briefs).
    Jennifer E. Kmieciak, Deputy Attorney General, argued
    the cause for amicus curiae Attorney General of New
    Jersey (Andrew J. Bruck, Acting Attorney General,
    attorney; Jennifer E. Kmieciak, of counsel and on the
    brief).
    Peter T. Blum, Assistant Deputy Public Defender, argued
    the cause for amicus curiae Public Defender of New
    1
    Jersey (Joseph E. Krakora, Public Defender, attorney;
    Peter T. Blum, of counsel and on the brief).
    J. John Kim argued the cause for amicus curiae
    Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey
    (Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, attorneys; J. John Kim,
    of counsel and on the brief).
    JUSTICE PATTERSON delivered the opinion of the Court.
    Under the Code of Criminal Justice, trial courts weigh aggravating and
    mitigating factors “[i]n determining the appropriate sentence to be imposed on
    a person who has been convicted of an offense.” N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(a), (b).The
    Legislature enumerated the aggravating factors that the sentencing court “shall
    consider” in N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(a), and the mitigating factors that the court
    “may properly consider” in N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b).
    In 2020, the Legislature amended N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1 to add a new
    mitigating factor fourteen: “[t]he defendant was under 26 years of age at the
    time of the commission of the offense.” N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14). It provided
    that “[t]his new act shall take effect immediately.” L. 2020, c. 110, § 2.
    Defendant Rahee Lane, sentenced to a term of incarceration before the
    Legislature enacted N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b), argues that the Court should afford
    the amendment “pipeline retroactivity” and apply it to defendants who were
    under twenty-six years old at the time of their offenses, if their direct appeals
    2
    were pending when the statute was amended. He urges the Court to remand
    this matter for a resentencing in which the sentencing judge could consider
    mitigating factor fourteen.
    The Appellate Division rejected that argument. The appellate court held
    that the Legislature intended the amendment to N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b) to be
    prospective only and that sentencing courts may apply mitigating factor
    fourteen only to defendants sentenced after the amendment’s effective date.
    We construe N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14) to be prospective. We find in the
    statutory language no indication that mitigating factor fourteen applies to
    defendants sentenced prior to the provision’s effective date. See L. 2020, c.
    110. We view N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14)’s legislative history to confirm the
    Legislature’s intent to authorize sentencing courts to consider the new
    mitigating factor in imposing a sentence on or after the date of the amendment.
    See S. Judiciary Comm. Statement to A. 4373 1 (L. 2020, c. 110).
    Accordingly, we affirm the Appellate Division’s judgment.
    I.
    A.
    Defendant, then nineteen years of age, was arrested following a March
    18, 2015 home invasion robbery in Irvington in which two men broke into an
    3
    apartment and threatened two adult victims and their nine-year-old child with
    handguns. A grand jury indicted defendant for twenty offenses arising from
    the incident.
    Defendant rejected the State’s initial plea offer, in which the State
    offered to recommend a fourteen-year aggregate prison sentence in exchange
    for defendant’s guilty plea to certain offenses. The State and defendant then
    negotiated a plea agreement under which defendant agreed to plead guilty to
    two counts of first-degree robbery, one count of first-degree kidnapping, and
    one count of second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, and the State
    agreed to recommend a sentence of sixteen years’ imprisonment subject to the
    No Early Release Act (NERA), N.J.S.A. 2C:43-7.2. On April 21, 2017,
    defendant pled guilty to those offenses in accordance with his plea agreement.
    Defendant was sentenced on December 14, 2017. At the sentencing
    hearing, defense counsel told the court that defendant “was a young man when
    this offense took place.” He urged the court to consider defendant’s age,
    learning disabilities, and remorse when imposing sentence. The State, arguing
    for the recommended sixteen-year term of imprisonment, relied on the gravity
    of defendant’s offenses, noting that the three victims were “still traumatized by
    the whole incident.” The State also invoked defendant’s juvenile adjudications
    for robbery and his violations of parole.
    4
    The sentencing judge found aggravating factor three, “[t]he risk that the
    defendant will commit another offense;” aggravating factor six, “[t]he extent
    of the defendant’s prior criminal record and the seriousness of the offenses of
    which the defendant has been convicted;” and aggravating factor nine, “[t]he
    need for deterring the defendant and others from violating the law.” N.J.S.A.
    2C:44-1(a)(3), (6), (9). The court placed “heavy weight” on the three
    aggravating factors. Citing an evaluation of defendant’s intellectual capacity,
    the sentencing judge applied mitigating factor four, “[t]here were substantial
    grounds tending to excuse or justify the defendant’s conduct, though failing to
    establish a defense.” N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(4).1 The judge afforded moderate
    weight to that mitigating factor.
    The sentencing judge found that the aggravating factors outweighed any
    mitigating factors that applied. Nonetheless, citing evidence that defendant
    “did not have a full grasp” of the State’s proofs when he rejected the State’s
    initial fourteen-year plea offer, the judge sentenced defendant to an aggregate
    fourteen-year prison sentence subject to NERA. The sentencing court thus
    1
    According to the transcript of defendant’s sentencing, the sentencing court
    stated, “[i]n this case there are mitigating factors which your attorney has
    asked us to consider and I find mitigating factors under Subsection 14 of 44 -
    1b. That is a catchall for other reasons.” As N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14) had not
    been enacted when defendant was sentenced, it appears that the reference to
    “Subsection 14” was an error, and that the judge applied mitigating factor four,
    N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(4).
    5
    imposed a term of incarceration two years shorter than the term contemplated
    by defendant’s plea agreement.
    B.
    Defendant appealed his sentence. On October 19, 2020, while
    defendant’s appeal was pending before the Appellate Division but before oral
    argument on that appeal, the Legislature amended N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b) to
    include mitigating factor fourteen.
    On March 23, 2021, the Appellate Division held oral argument on
    defendant’s appeal. Defendant argued that the appellate court should afford
    pipeline retroactivity to N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14). He asked the Appellate
    Division to remand the matter to the sentencing court for a resentencing in
    which the court would consider mitigating factor fourteen.
    The Appellate Division declined to remand this matter to the sentencing
    court. The court viewed the Legislature’s statement that the new mitigating
    factor would “take effect immediately” to authorize sentencing judges to
    consider the mitigating factor only in sentences imposed after the effective
    date of the amendment. It affirmed the sentencing court’s judgment.
    C.
    We granted defendant’s petition for certification, in which defendant
    raised only the issue of whether the October 19, 2020 amendment to N.J.S.A.
    6
    2C:44-1(b) should be afforded pipeline retroactivity. 
    248 N.J. 534
     (2021). We
    also granted the applications of the Office of the Public Defender, the
    Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey, and the Attorney
    General to participate as amici curiae.
    II.
    A.
    Defendant argues that N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14) should be afforded
    pipeline retroactivity. He asserts that mitigating factor fourteen should apply
    to any defendant under twenty-six years of age at the time of his offense if the
    defendant was sentenced before the amendment and his direct appeal was
    pending on the amendment’s effective date. Defendant acknowledges the
    presumption that new criminal statutes are intended to apply prospectively but
    contends that the exception to that presumption for ameliorative laws governs
    this appeal. He asserts that the Savings Statute, N.J.S.A. 1:1-15, is irrelevant
    to the retroactivity issue presented in this appeal.
    B.
    The State asserts that N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14)’s plain language and
    legislative history reflect the Legislature’s intent that the new mitigating factor
    apply prospectively. It argues that the presumption that new criminal laws
    7
    apply prospectively is unrebutted in this appeal, and that the Savings Statute,
    N.J.S.A. 1:1-15, precludes retroactive application of N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14).
    C.
    Amicus curiae the Office of the Public Defender contends that N.J.S.A.
    2C:44-1(b)(14) is ameliorative and that the Legislature intended that it apply
    retroactively if reasonably possible. It states that retroactive application of the
    new mitigating factor would apply to a limited number of defendants and
    would have a minimal effect on the administration of justice.
    D.
    Amicus curiae the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New
    Jersey also argues that N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14) is ameliorative and is,
    therefore, within an exception to the presumption of prospective application.
    E.
    Amicus curiae the Attorney General asserts that the Legislature chose
    the language “take effect immediately” to express its intent that N.J.S.A.
    2C:44-1(b)(14) apply only to sentences imposed after the statute’s enactment.
    The Attorney General views N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14)’s legislative history to
    support prospective application of mitigating factor fourteen.
    8
    III.
    A.
    In November 2019, the New Jersey Criminal Sentencing and Disposition
    Commission (CSDC) submitted its first Annual Report to the Governor and
    Legislature, as required by N.J.S.A. 2C:48A-4.2 See N.J. Crim. Sent’g &
    Disposition Comm’n, Annual Report (Nov. 2019). In that report, the CSDC
    proposed nine sentencing reforms. Id. at 21-35.
    The CSDC’s first recommendation was to “eliminate mandatory
    minimum sentences for non-violent drug crimes.” Id. at 21-23. Its second
    recommendation was to “eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for non-
    violent property crimes.” Id. at 23. The CSDC’s third recommendation was to
    “reduce the mandatory minimum sentence for . . . second degree robbery and
    second degree burglary.” Id. at 23-24. In its fourth recommendation, the
    CSDC urged the Legislature to ensure the retroactive application of statutes
    incorporating its first, second and third recommendations. Id. at 24. It
    proposed that the Legislature not only codify its recommendations for future
    2
    The CSDC was created to analyze New Jersey’s sentencing laws and
    recommend sentencing reforms “with the goal of providing a rational, just and
    proportionate sentencing scheme that achieves to the greatest extent possible
    public safety, offender accountability, crime reduction and prevention, and
    offender rehabilitation while promoting the efficient use of the State’s
    resources.” N.J.S.A. 2C:48A-2(a).
    9
    sentencing proceedings, but that it adopt “a mechanism to ensure that [the
    proposed reforms] apply retroactively to inmates currently incarcerated.” Id.
    at 24-25.
    In its fifth recommendation, the CSDC suggested “that the Legislature
    create a new mitigating factor that allows judges to consider a defendant’s
    youthfulness at the time of the offense,” and it proposed, as the new mitigating
    factor, that “[t]he defendant was under 26 years of age at the time of the
    commission of the offense.” Id. at 26. In contrast to its approach in its first
    three recommendations for sentencing reform, the CSDC did not recommend
    that the amendment codifying the new mitigating factor apply retroactively to
    defendants sentenced before the new law’s effective date. Ibid.
    The Legislature expressly based N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14) on the CSDC’s
    fifth recommendation. As the Senate Judiciary Committee Statement
    explained,
    This bill would provide for the consideration of youth
    as a mitigating factor in criminal sentencing, based on
    Recommendation 5 contained in the first annual report
    of the New Jersey Criminal Sentencing and Disposition
    Commission (the CSDC), created by P.L.2009, c.81
    (C.2C:48A-1 et seq.) but delayed in being constituted
    and actively reviewing the State’s sentencing laws. The
    bill would provide a court with the authority to consider
    as a mitigating factor that the defendant was under 26
    years of age at the time the defendant committed the
    offense when determining the appropriate sentence to
    10
    be imposed.      This would broaden the court’s
    consideration of age as a mitigating factor for
    determining sentences, as current law only permits as a
    mitigating factor directly related to age whether a
    ‘youthful defendant was substantially influenced’ by a
    more mature person.
    [S. Judiciary Comm. Statement to A. 4373 1 (L. 2020,
    c. 110); accord A. L. & Pub. Safety Comm. Statement
    to A. 4373 1 (L. 2020, c. 110).]
    On October 19, 2020, the Legislature amended N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1 to add
    mitigating factor fourteen. L. 2020, c. 110. The statutory language adopted by
    the Legislature in N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14) precisely tracked the CSDC’s
    proposed language in its fifth recommendation. With the addition of
    mitigating factor fourteen, N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b) now provides that a sentencing
    judge “may properly consider” that “[t]he defendant was under 26 years of age
    at the time of the commission of the offense.” The Legislature neither
    mandated retroactive application of the new mitigating factor, nor created a
    procedure to apply that mitigating factor to defendants sentenced prior to the
    date of the amendment. L. 2020, c. 110. Instead, it stated that the new
    amendment “shall take effect immediately.” Ibid.
    
    11 B. 1
    .
    Against that backdrop, we consider whether the Appellate Division
    properly concluded that the Legislature intended N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14) to
    apply prospectively. We review the Appellate Division’s determination de
    novo, affording no deference to the court’s legal conclusion on the question of
    retroactivity. See State v. J.V., 
    242 N.J. 432
    , 442 (2020).
    In our inquiry, we follow familiar principles of statutory construction.
    Our goal in interpreting a statute “is to determine as best we can the intent of
    the Legislature, and to give effect to that intent.” State v. Robinson, 
    217 N.J. 594
    , 604 (2014) (quoting State v. Hudson, 
    209 N.J. 513
    , 529 (2012)). It is
    well settled that in general, the “best indicator of that intent is the statutory
    language.” DiProspero v. Penn, 
    183 N.J. 477
    , 492 (2005); accord State v.
    Gandhi, 
    201 N.J. 161
    , 176 (2010). Thus, if the statutory terms, given their
    plain and ordinary meaning, “are clear and unambiguous, then the interpretive
    process ends, and ‘we apply the law as written.’” J.V., 242 N.J. at 443
    (quoting Murray v. Plainfield Rescue Squad, 
    210 N.J. 581
    , 592 (2012)).
    Our courts “have long followed a general rule of statutory construction
    that favors prospective application of statutes.” Gibbons v. Gibbons, 
    86 N.J. 515
    , 521 (1981); see also In re Registrant J.D.-F., 
    248 N.J. 11
    , 22 (2021)
    12
    (stating the general rule that courts “enforce newly enacted substantive statutes
    prospectively, unless [the Legislature] clearly expresses a contrary intent ”
    (alteration in original)); James v. N.J. Mfrs. Ins. Co., 
    216 N.J. 552
    , 563 (2014)
    (“Settled rules of statutory construction favor prospective rather than
    retroactive application of new legislation.”). Therefore, when the Legislature
    enacts a criminal statute, the new law is “presumed to have solely prospective
    application.” J.V., 242 N.J. at 443; see also State v. Parolin, 
    171 N.J. 223
    , 233
    (2002) (noting “the presumption that criminal legislation is to have prospective
    effect”). The presumption is overcome only if we “find the ‘Legislature
    clearly intended a retrospective application’ of the statute through its use of
    words ‘so clear, strong, and imperative that no . . . meaning can be ascribed to
    them’ other than to apply the statute retroactively.” J.V., 242 N.J. at 443-44
    (quoting Weinstein v. Invs. Sav. & Loan Ass’n, 
    154 N.J. Super. 164
    , 167
    (App. Div. 1977)).
    This Court has identified “well-settled rules concerning the
    circumstances in which statutes should be applied retroactively, where there is
    no clear expression of intent by the Legislature that the statute is to be
    prospectively applied.” Gibbons, 
    86 N.J. at 522
    . “First, there are those
    statutes in which the Legislature has expressed the contrary intent; i.e., that the
    statute be applied retroactively,” which “may be either express, that is, stated
    13
    in the language of the statute or in the pertinent legislative history, or implied,
    that is, retroactive application may be necessary to make the statute workable
    or to give it the most sensible interpretation.” 
    Ibid.
     (citation omitted); accord
    J.V., 242 N.J. at 444; In re J.D.-F, 248 N.J. at 22. Second, a “category of cases
    in which . . . statutes may be given retroactive application is that in which the
    statute is ameliorative or curative.” Gibbons, 
    86 N.J. at 523
    ; accord J.V., 242
    N.J. at 444; NL Indus., Inc. v. State, 
    228 N.J. 280
    , 295 (2017). Third, “in the
    absence of a clear expression of legislative intent that the statute is to be
    applied prospectively, such considerations as the expectations of the parties
    may warrant retroactive application of a statute.” Gibbons, 
    86 N.J. at 523
    ;
    accord J.V., 242 N.J. at 444; Johnson v. Roselle EZ Quick LLC, 
    226 N.J. 370
    ,
    388-89 (2016). However, “we look to those exceptions only in instances
    ‘where there is no clear expression of intent by the Legislature that the statute
    is to be prospectively applied only.’” J.V., 242 N.J. at 444 (quoting Gibbons,
    
    86 N.J. at 522
    ).
    2.
    We apply those settled principles to the statutory amendment at issue in
    this appeal.
    First, we consider the language of the amendment. The statute is devoid
    of the slightest hint that the Legislature intended mitigating factor fourteen to
    14
    apply retroactively. See L. 2020, c. 110. Indeed, we have repeatedly
    construed language stating that a provision is to be effective immediately, or
    effective immediately on a given date, to signal prospective application. In
    Pisack v. B & C Towing, Inc., we viewed the Legislature’s statement that a
    statutory amendment “shall take effect immediately” to “‘bespeak an intent
    contrary to, and not supportive of, retroactive application.’” 
    240 N.J. 360
    , 371
    (2020) (quoting Cruz v. Cent. Jersey Landscaping, Inc., 
    195 N.J. 33
    , 48
    (2008)). In In re Registrant G.H., we affirmed an Appellate Division decision
    construing N.J.S.A. 2C:7-2(g), a provision of Megan’s Law, to be prospective
    after finding “no statement of legislative intent, express or implied, that [the
    amendment] should be applied retroactively.” 
    240 N.J. 113
    , 113-14 (2019),
    aff’g 
    455 N.J. Super. 515
    , 521 (App. Div. 2018) (“[T]he Legislature did not
    explicitly provide that subsection (g) applied retroactively, i.e., to those
    convicted of sex offenses prior to 2002,” but “[i]nstead . . . provided
    subsection (g) would be ‘effect[ive] immediately.’” (second alteration in
    original) (quoting L. 2002, c. 392, § 2)). And in Parolin, holding that
    amendments to the NERA should be prospective, we observed that
    “[c]onsistent with the presumption that criminal legislation is to have
    prospective effect, the Legislature stated that the amendments would take
    effect immediately.” 
    171 N.J. at 233
     (citations omitted).
    15
    The Legislature’s use of the language “take effect immediately” when it
    adopted N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14) thus connotes prospective application. See L.
    2020, c. 110. We find no suggestion in N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14) -- let alone
    the clear, strong and imperative declaration that our law demands for the
    presumption of prospective effect to be overcome -- that the Legislature
    intended otherwise.
    The legislative history confirms the Legislature’s intent that mitigating
    factor fourteen apply prospectively only. The Legislature made clear that
    when it amended N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b) to add the new mitigating factor, it
    adopted the CSDC’s fifth recommendation in its 2019 Annual Report. S.
    Judiciary Comm. Statement to A. 4373 1 (L. 2020, c. 110); accord A. L. &
    Pub. Safety Comm. Statement to A. 4373 1 (L. 2020, c. 110). As noted,
    although the CSDC urged the Governor and Legislature to apply three of its
    sentencing proposals retroactively to previously sentenced defendants, it did
    not mention retroactive application in the recommendation that led to N.J.S.A.
    2C:44-1(b)(14). Annual Report at 21-26. The Legislature included the
    CSDC’s recommended language unaltered. See L. 2020, c. 110.
    In short, nothing in N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14)’s statutory text warrants a
    determination that the presumption of prospective application is overcome. To
    the contrary, the amendment’s language and legislative history bespeak a
    16
    legislative intent to apply the statute prospectively to defendants sentenced on
    or after its effective date of October 19, 2020. 3 Accordingly, we do not
    consider defendant’s argument that the amendment should be retroactive
    because it is an ameliorative statute, or the parties’ contentions based on the
    Savings Statute. See J.V., 242 N.J. at 445-46.
    IV.
    The judgment of the Appellate Division is affirmed.
    CHIEF JUSTICE RABNER; JUSTICES SOLOMON and PIERRE-
    LOUIS; and JUDGE FUENTES (temporarily assigned) join in JUSTICE
    PATTERSON’s opinion. JUSTICE ALBIN filed a separate opinion,
    dissenting in part and concurring in the judgment.
    3
    We view N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14) to apply not only to defendants sentenced
    for the first time on or after October 19, 2020, but also to defendants
    resentenced on or after that date for reasons unrelated to mitigating factor
    fourteen. Cf. State v. Rivera, 
    249 N.J. 285
    , 303-04 (2021) (noting that the new
    factor could be applied in “all sentencing proceedings on or after October 19,
    2020” in remanding for resentencing); State v. Bellamy, 
    468 N.J. Super. 29
    , 44
    (App. Div. 2021) (holding that the application of N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14) to a
    defendant resentenced after the amendment’s effective date for reasons
    unrelated to the adoption of mitigating factor fourteen constituted prospective
    application of the amendment).
    17
    State of New Jersey,
    Plaintiff-Respondent,
    v.
    Rahee Lane,
    Defendant-Appellant.
    JUSTICE ALBIN, dissenting in part and concurring in the judgment.
    Before imposing sentence on a defendant, the trial judge must identify
    any applicable aggravating and mitigating factors set forth in N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1
    and then weigh those factors in fashioning a fair sentence. Social science
    studies have long recognized that persons under the age of twenty-six may not
    have reached a full level of mental and emotional maturity -- thus making them
    more susceptible to act impulsively, rashly, and without consideration of long-
    term consequences. See Laurence Steinberg, A Social Neuroscience
    Perspective on Adolescent Risk-Taking, 28 Dev. Rev. 78 (2008); see also
    Roper v. Simmons, 
    543 U.S. 551
    , 574 (2005) (“The qualities that distinguish
    juveniles from adults do not disappear when an individual turns 18 .”); United
    States v. C.R., 
    792 F. Supp. 2d 343
    , 498-506 (E.D.N.Y. 2011) (explaining that
    social and psychological science support the conclusion that the immature
    behaviors associated with youth “continue to apply to individuals into their
    1
    twenties, even mid-twenties or beyond” (quotation omitted)), rev’d on other
    grounds, United States v. Reingold, 
    731 F.3d 204
     (2d Cir. 2013).
    Nevertheless, youth has not been a mitigating sentencing factor until recently.
    On October 19, 2020, the Legislature filled that void and passed L. 2020,
    c. 110. § 1, which adds youth as a mitigating factor for sentencing purposes.
    N.J.S.A. 2C:44-1(b)(14) now provides that the trial judge may consider that
    “[t]he defendant was under 26 years of age at the time of the commission of
    the offense” in setting the appropriate sentence. The Legislature decreed that
    the new law “shall take effect immediately.” L. 2020, c. 110, § 2.
    Defendant, who was nineteen years old at the time he committed his
    offenses, already had been sentenced when the new law took “effect,” but the
    appeal of his sentence had yet to be heard. The new law is unquestionably
    ameliorative in nature because it allows trial judges to weigh youth and its
    accompanying immaturity in setting a just sentence. I agree with the majority
    that the new law’s language expresses a prospective application. But what
    does prospective application mean?
    By the terms of its plain language, the new law applies forward and not
    backward. Trial judges who have already sentenced defendants are not
    expected to give retroactive application to the new law and conduct fresh
    sentencing hearings. The automatic retroactive approach would require
    2
    countless new sentencing hearings in cases where courts had already taken
    youth into account or where youth as a mitigating factor would not alter the
    original sentence.
    However, in those cases where the defendants’ sentencing appeals were
    pending when the new law took “effect,” prospective application does not and
    should not foreclose the Appellate Division from considering whether, in a
    particular case, the failure of a trial judge to consider a defendant’s youth as a
    mitigating factor resulted in a clearly excessive sentence. Applying the law
    forwardly -- prospectively -- as the Legislature intended, would allow the
    Appellate Division to provide a remedy in those cases, perhaps few in number,
    in which clearly excessive sentences were imposed. In those cases, the
    appellate court should have the authority to remand for a new sentencing
    hearing.
    That approach is consistent with the new law’s plain language, its
    legislative history, and its ameliorative nature. To the extent that two
    reasonable interpretations can be ascribed to the term “effective immediately,”
    the interpretation that best fulfills the ameliorative purposes of the legislation
    should take precedence. Cf. Application of Smigelski, 
    30 N.J. 513
    , 527
    (1959). Did the Legislature intend for the Appellate Division, reviewing a
    sentence after the new law went into effect, to close its eyes to a clearly
    3
    excessive sentence because the trial judge did not take the defendant’s youth
    into account? Nothing in the language of the new law suggests the Legislature
    intended such an outcome.
    It is widely recognized that defendants should be given the benefit of
    ameliorative statutory amendments until their convictions and sentences are
    finalized after appeal. See, e.g., People v. Thomas, 
    525 P.2d 1136
    , 1138
    (Colo. 1974) (“The view that amendatory legislation mitigating the penalties
    for crimes should be applied to any case which has not received final judgment
    finds substantial support in the common law.”); State v. Pardon, 
    157 S.E.2d 698
    , 702 (N.C. 1967) (“When . . . the law under which a defendant was
    convicted is amended pending appeal so as to mitigate the punishment, it is
    logical to assume that the legislature intended the new punishment, which it
    now feels fits the crime, to apply whenever possible.”).
    Here, on the effective date of the new law, which added youth as a
    mitigating factor, defendant’s sentencing appeal was pending. Allowing an
    appellate court to consider youth as a sentencing factor is not a retroactive but
    a prospective application of the law. The Appellate Division should have the
    authority to do precisely what the Legislature intended: to consider youth as a
    mitigating factor in cases directly before it when the new law went into effect.
    Cf. Kruvant v. Mayor & Council of Cedar Grove, 
    82 N.J. 435
    , 440 (1980) (“It
    4
    is a well-established principle that an appellate court on direct review will
    apply the statute in effect at the time of its decision . . . .”); United States v.
    Schooner Peggy, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 103, 110 (1801) (“[I]f subsequent to the
    judgment and before the decision of the appellate court, a law intervenes and
    positively changes the rule which governs, the law must be obeyed, or its
    obligation denied.”).
    Even the majority agrees that the new law would apply to those
    defendants resentenced after a successful appeal of their convictions or
    sentences on other grounds. Ante, ___ N.J. at ___ n.3 (slip op. at 17 n.3).
    Those defendants who, on appeal, can establish that their sentences were
    clearly excessive because the trial judge did not take youth into account should
    not be deprived of the same opportunity to benefit from the new mitigating
    factor.
    The defendant in this case committed very serious crimes. The
    sentencing court gave thoughtful consideration to the applicable mitigating
    factors, including -- it appears -- defendant’s youth. I cannot conclude that,
    even if the new mitigating factor were taken into consideration at a new
    sentencing hearing, a different sentence would result.
    Accordingly, I concur in the majority’s judgment to deny defendant
    Lane the relief he seeks. I dissent, however, from the majority’s holding that
    5
    deprives our appellate courts from prospectively applying the new law in cases
    where the failure to take youth into account results in a clearly excessive
    sentence.
    6