Opinion ID: 1857482
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Resentencing Panel's Authority.

Text: Notwithstanding the constitutional viability of the Palmer factors, given this court's refusal in State v. Moore, 243 Neb. 679, 502 N.W.2d 227 (1993), to resentence Moore; the Eighth Circuit's criticism in Moore v. Clarke, 904 F.2d 1226 (8th Cir.1990), cert. denied 504 U.S. 930, 112 S.Ct. 1995, 118 L.Ed.2d 591 (1992), of our efforts to read the legislative language in a constitutional fashion in Palmer, and the fact that Joubert v. Hopkins had not yet been decided, the resentencing panel concluded that there was in place no constitutionally viable interpretation of the exceptional depravity component of aggravating circumstance § 29-2523(1)(d). The panel then undertook to establish in a comprehensive manner appropriate limiting conditions for that component. In crafting its definitions, the resentencing panel took the basic factors of exceptional depravity as described in Palmer, combined them with our pre- Palmer definitions, and then narrowed them in order to provide the historically comprehensive definition that the Eighth Circuit had found to be lacking in Moore v. Clarke, supra . It is this effort that Moore now challenges. Although the resentencing panel's view that there was no constitutionally viable interpretation of exceptional depravity was mistaken, it was, given the confusing state of precedent on the issue, nevertheless within its authority to define the exceptional depravity component in such a way as to ensure that Moore received sentences that were consistent with constitutional requirements. Obviously, in the absence of clear precedent, a trial court confronting a statute for the first time must apply the statute in accordance with its own understanding of it. See, e.g., In re Guardianship & Conservatorship of Bloomquist, 246 Neb. 711, 523 N.W.2d 352 (1994); In re Estate of Holt, 246 Neb. 50, 516 N.W.2d 608 (1994); State v. Stein, 241 Neb. 225, 486 N.W.2d 921 (1992).