Case Name: STATE of Louisiana v. Cathy L. HAMILTON
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1996-02-02
Citations: 666 So. 2d 655
Docket Number: No. 95-K-2462
Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Cathy L. HAMILTON.
Judges: CALOGERO, C.J., concurs and assigns reasons.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 666
Pages: 655–656

Head Matter:
STATE of Louisiana v. Cathy L. HAMILTON.
No. 95-K-2462.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
Feb. 2, 1996.

Opinion:
JiPER CURIAM.
Defendant was charged with soliciting unnatural carnal copulation, and pled guilty as charged. She was adjudicated as a second felony offender. The trial court sentenced her to eighteen months at hard later, one year less than the statutory minimum of two and a half years mandated for a second offender under La.R.S. 15:529.1 The court of appeal affirmed and the state now applies to this court.
Louisiana's judiciary maintains the distinct responsibility of reviewing sentences imposed in criminal cases for constitutional excessiveness. State v. Sepulvado, 367 So.2d 762 (La. 1979). However, in order to find the punishment mandated by La.R.S. 15:529.1 excessive, the trial judge must find that the sentence makes no measurable contribution to the acceptable goals of punishment or that the sentence amounts to nothing more than the purposeful imposition of pain and suffering and is grossly out of proportion to the severity of the crime. State v. Dorthey, 623 So.2d 1276 (La.1993).
Although the trial judge cited Dorthey in his reasons, it does not appear that he made a proper finding that imposition of the statutorily mandated sentence would be constitutionally excessive. Accordingly, the judg ment of the court of appeal is vacated and the case remanded to the trial court to justify its deviation from the statutorily-mandated minimum sentence in this case.
CALOGERO, C.J., concurs and assigns reasons.