Ex Post Facto Law and Bill of Attainder
Limitations on the power of the lawmaking body to enact penal legislation. The Bill of Rights of the 1987 Constitution imposes the following limitations: 1. No ex post facto law or bill of attainder shall be enacted. (Art. III, Sec. 22) 2. No person shall be held to answer for a criminal offense without due process of law. (Art. III, Sec. 14) The first limitation prohibits the passage of retroactive laws which are prejudicial to the accused. An ex post facto law is one which: 1. makes criminal an act done before the passage of the law and which was innocent when done, and punishes such an act; 2. aggravates a crime, or makes it greater than it was, when committed; 3. changes the punishment and inflicts a greater punishment than the law annexed to the crime when committed; 4. alters the legal rules of evidence, and authorizes conviction upon less or different testimony than the law required at the time of the commission of the offense; 5....