Opinion ID: 2680004
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: factual background and sentencing process

Text: [¶56] We cannot overlook the factual context in which this sentence was initially imposed, including Stanislaw’s prior felony child sexual abuse conviction; his highly skillful cultivation of the parents’ trust; the number of victims; the number of days, weeks, months, and years in which he perpetrated his crimes and abused each victim; and the effect on the child victims and the community of a person who has the intellect, but not the moral fiber, to recognize that his behavior is abhorrent. [¶57] Notwithstanding this background, the State, at the original sentencing, made no specific recommendation for a final period of incarceration and did not present a presentence investigation report. Most strikingly, the State offered no information whatsoever about Stanislaw’s history between 1982, when he was convicted of his first crime of child sexual abuse, and 2004, more than 34 twenty years later, when he first began to abuse children in Blue Hill. Stanislaw pleaded guilty to each of the charges in an “open plea” format. His attorney argued that Stanislaw should spend no time in jail but that a substantial period of probation should be imposed. For its part, the State did not present a presentence investigation, did not give the court information on Stanislaw’s missing twenty-two years, and did not provide a recommended sentence. It did, however, provide sentences from four roughly comparable cases, the highest of which called for a final sentence of eight years in prison, with a lengthy underlying sentence and a long period of probation.8 [¶58] Thus, with Stanislaw arguing for no jail time, and the State suggesting that eight years was the highest appropriate final sentence, the trial court imposed a final sentence that was more than three times higher than the outer range presented by the State, and it did so without information regarding Stanislaw’s history and without the specific findings required by statute. See State v. Stanislaw, 2011 ME 8 The longest final prison sentence included in the State’s materials was eight years. This may explain the absence of a background evaluation or presentence investigation report in the first sentencing. In the case with the longest sentence, the sentencing court imposed an underlying sentence of thirty-eight years, with eight years to be immediately served in prison, and twenty-six years of probation. The next most severe of the comparables imposed an underlying sentence of twenty-five and a half years, with four years to be served in prison immediately, and eleven years of probation. The other two comparable sentences involved underlying sentences of seven and nearly nine years, respectively, with three years to be served in prison immediately in each case. Thus, the longest final sentence of imprisonment suggested by the State was eight years. 35 67, ¶¶ 4, 16, 21 A.3d 91; see 17-A M.R.S. § 1252-C(1) (2012). Accordingly, we vacated the sentence and remanded the case for resentencing. Id. ¶ 16. [¶59] On remand, the court did not request or receive a presentence investigation report or any other new information from the parties. Again, both parties failed to provide any information whatsoever regarding Stanislaw’s whereabouts, his employment, his contact with children, his criminal records, or any other aspect of his life during the time between Stanislaw’s felony conviction in 1982 and his activities in the Blue Hill community beginning in 2004. Notwithstanding the absence of this critical information about the defendant’s history, a substantial focus of the sentencing court was the court’s assessment that Stanislaw was not a good candidate for rehabilitation. [¶60] When a sentencing court is considering, in a contested sentencing, the imposition of a sentence that is likely to place the defendant in prison for twenty years or more, and is determining the need for and potential efficacy of probation, the best practice is for the court to have a presentence investigation report or other accurate and detailed information about the defendant and his background, including the level of danger to the public and the defendant’s amenability to rehabilitation. Without that information, it is difficult, if not impossible, for the court to thoughtfully address the second and third steps of the required statutory sentencing analysis, and nearly impossible for an appellate court to meaningfully 36 review that analysis. In this case, the gap in information is particularly evident in the trial court’s decision to impose such a brief period of probation in circumstances where the court also determined that the defendant presents a grave danger to children in the community. [¶61] Recognizing that we should have explicitly required a thorough background investigation upon our earlier remand, I would now explicitly mandate a presentence investigation report before Stanislaw is resentenced.