Court Opinion

ID: 9687044
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:14:34.560492+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:23.752099
License: Public Domain

KELLY, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. Minn.St. 609.11, subd. 1, speaks in unambiguous terms and we must heed its command. It mandates that—
“ * * * any commitment following the defendant’s first conviction of an offense wherein he had in his possession a firearm or used a dangerous weapon at the time of the offense shall be for a term of not less than one year plus one day, nor more than the maximum sentence provided by law for the offense for which convicted, and * * * that any commitment following defendant’s second or subsequent conviction of an offense wherein he had in his possession a firearm or used a dangerous weapon at the time of the offense shall be for a term not less than three years, nor more than the maximum sentence provided by law for the offense for which convicted * * * it
No qualification concerning the sequence of conviction and commission of offenses appears.
*911The majority implies a requirement that the 3-year minimum term is applicable only if the defendant has committed the second offense after conviction for the first offense. The traditional legislative approach to extended term statutes is imported because § 609.11, subd. 1, is thought ambiguous. I do not find the statute ambiguous nor do I find the traditional approach relied on by the majority controlling.
Minn.St. 609.11 is not an extended term statute. It does not increase the penalty for an offense.1 Extended term statutes, to the contrary, multiply maximum terms of imprisonment.2 Section 609.11 resembles an extended term statute in that it provides an increased minimum term for recidivists bearing firearms, but the resemblance does not support the conclusion that the legislature must have intended to import the requirements of Minn.St. 609.155, the extended term statute, into § 609.11.
The purposes of the two statutes are palpably different. The extended term statute subjects a felon who will not be reformed or deterred to lengthy incarceration. Its object is to remove the habitual offender from society for the safety of the public: “[T]he legislature in enacting * * * a [habitual criminal] statute intend[s] it to serve as a warning to first offenders and to afford them an opportunity to reform, and * * * the reason for the infliction of severer punishment for a repetition of offenses is not so much that defendant has sinned more than once as that he is deemed incorrigible when he persists in violations of the law after conviction of previous infractions.” Annotation, 24 A.L.R.2d 1247, 1248. See, Minn.St. 609.16(3)(b). Before drastically increasing the severity of his punishment, it is reasonable to first warn the defendant through conviction and provide him an opportunity to rehabilitate his behavior.
The minimum sentence prescribed by Minn.St. 609.11, however, is imposed on first-time, as well as repeat, offenders. State v. Spencer, Minn., 248 N.W.2d 915, 921 (1976); State v. Master, Minn., 252 N.W.2d 859 (1977). The statute thus attempts general, as well as special, deterrence. It also focuses its deterrent effect on criminals possessing a firearm or using a dangerous weapon. The differences in emphasis are implicit in the statute’s legislative history.3 Its passage was undoubtedly *912a legislative effort to deter through an assured prison sentence the use of weaponry in crime.
Given the different purposes of the statutes, I do not find it entirely reasonable to divine a legislative intent to apply principles of the extended term statute to § 609.-11. But more importantly, the wording of the two statutes differs. If the legislature had intended to apply the sequential requirements of § 609.155 to § 609.11, it could have used the clear and direct language of that section.4 It did not do so. The words it chose have a plain meaning. Defendant has twice been convicted of an offense wherein he had in his possession a firearm, and his commitment must therefore be for a term of not less than 3 years. I would affirm.

. The statute explicitly limits imprisonment to “no[t] more than the maximum sentence provided by law for the offense for which [the defendant was] convicted”.

. Minn.St. 609.155, subd. 1, for example, provides: “ ‘Extended term of imprisonment’ means a term of imprisonment the maximum of which may be for the maximum term authorized by law for the crime for which the defendant is being sentenced multiplied by the number of his prior felony convictions, but not to exceed 40 years.”

. Minimum terms for firearm offenders initiated in 1969: “[A]ny commitment for a felony wherein the intent of the defendant is an element of proof and wherein the defendant had in his possession a firearm at the time of the offense shall be for a term of not less than three years.” L.1969, c. 743, § 1. See, also, L.1971, c. 845, § 15. In 1974 the legislature amended Minn.St. 609.11, subd. 1, to provide: “All commitments to the commissioner of corrections for imprisonment of the defendant are without minimum terms except when sentence is to life imprisonment as required by law and except that any commitment following conviction wherein the defendant had in his possession a firearm or used a dangerous weapon at the time of the offense shall be for a term of not less than three years, nor more than the maximum sentence provided by law for the offense for which convicted, and such person shall not be eligible for parole until he shall have served the full minimum sentence herein provided, notwithstanding the provisions of Minnesota Statutes, Sections 242.19, 243.05 and 609.12. The offenses for which mandatory minimum sentences shall be served as herein provided are: aggravated assault, burglary, kidnapping, manslaughter, murder in the second or third degree, rape, robbery, sodomy, escape while under charge or conviction of a felony, or discharge of an explosive or incendiary device.
“Provided, however, the court may invoke the provisions of Minnesota Statutes, Section 609.135, if the defendant has not previously been convicted of any crime or ordinance involving possession of a firearm, other than a game law violation, or use of a dangerous weapon, or the defendant has not previously been convicted of aggravated assault, burglary, kidnapping, manslaughter, murder in the secorid or third degree, rape, robbery, sodomy, escape while under charge or conviction of a felony, or discharge of an explosive or incendiary device.” L.1974, c. 32, § 1. The law *912amending § 609.11 to its instant form was passed with the Pistol Regulation Act, L.1975, c. 378.

. Minn.St. 609.155, subd. 2, provides: “Whoever, having previously been convicted of one or more felonies, commits another felony other than murder in the first degree may upon conviction thereof be sentenced to an extended term of imprisonment if [certain conditions are met].”