Opinion ID: 2365781
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Pre-Sentence Investigation and Report

Text: Although no formal motion was presented to the Court for a pre-sentence investigation and report by the State Board of Probation and Parole before the imposition of sentence in the instant case (see suggestion in 3 Maine Practice, Glassman, § 32.4, at page 250), the defendant contends that it was reversible error for the Justice below to impose sentence without it. We disagree. Assuming that the pre-sentence investigation request had been properly addressed to the Court, the defendant on this record has failed to show an abuse of discretion. Rule 32(c), M.R.Crim.P. expressly authorizes such pre-sentence investigation and report by the State Board of Probation and Parole before sentence in the discretion of the court. Judicial discretion implies that, in the absence of positive law or fixed rule, the justice is to decide the question before him by his view of expediency, or of the demands of equity and justice. Sevigny v. City of Biddeford, 1975, Me., 344 A.2d 34, 38. The chief test as to what is or is not a proper exercise of judicial discretion is whether in a given case it is in furtherance of justice. Proper judicial discretion is that which is guided and controlled, in the light of the facts and circumstances of each particular case, by the law and justice of the case, subject only to such rules of public policy as may have been established for the common good. York & Cumberland Railroad Co. v. Clark, 1858, 45 Me. 151, 154; Charlesworth v. American Express Company, 1918, 117 Me. 219, 221, 103 A. 358; In Re Wagner's Petition, 1959, 155 Me. 257, 269, 153 A.2d 619, 626. As stated in Preuss v. McWilliams, 1967, 141 Ind.App. 602, 230 N.E.2d 789, 792: The term `discretion' implies the absence of a hard and fast rule or a mandatory procedure regardless of varying circumstances. `Discretion' of a court is a privilege allowed a judge within the confines of justice to decide and act in accordance with what is fair and equitable. Thus, judicial action which involves discretion is final and cannot be set aside on appeal except when there is an abuse of discretion. Such judicial action must be examined and confined to the issues of the particular case. The object of Rule 32(c), M.R.Crim.P. in making available to the court in its discretion investigations and reports by the State Probation and Parole personnel prior to the passing of sentence in a criminal case is to bring to the attention of the court factual information about the convicted person as may assist the court in performing one of the most difficult and trying tasks a court is called upon to perform. Fixing the extent of punishment for crime within the conceptual range of the protection of society and the rehabilitation of the defendant has been lodged in the trial courts. The trial judge is entrusted with the heavy responsibility of making an individualized judgment, without the help of any definite scientific or philosophical formula presently available, except that he may, by the use of Rule 32(c), M.R.Crim.P., obtain helpful information through an inquiry into all of the facts and circumstances surrounding the offense itself, whether in aggravation or mitigation, and be advised on other matters concerning the person to be sentenced including his background, the environment from which he comes, his past behavioral pattern of conduct showing his inclinations or tendencies and his mental approach to societal problems. Without deciding whether in any case the complete absence of such data by reason of the non-exercise of the Rule 32(c) privilege would rise to an abuse of discretion on the part of the sentencing judge, the Justice below in the instant case at the time of passing sentence had as complete a picture of all the circumstances surrounding the offense and the defendant as an investigation by the State Probation and Parole Board would have produced. He was fully aware of the defendant's mental condition by reason of having heard the testimony of the experts at trial. He was given all the information he needed respecting the defendant's prior behavioral pattern by an extended colloquy with the defendant himself. The instant record disproves any abuse of judicial discretion.