Court Opinion

ID: 9744874
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 22:21:13.077009+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:52.775962
License: Public Domain

NAJAM, Judge,
concurring in result.
I concur in result and write separately to express my disagreement with the standard of review applied by the majority. While our supreme court has sometimes described the standard of review for sentences to be whether the sentence "is clearly, plainly, and obviously" unreasonable, Spears v. State, 735 N.E.2d 1161, 1168 (Ind.2000), that formulation subverts Indiana Appellate Rule 7(B). The "clearly, plainly, and obviously" unreasonable test reinstates the standard of review our supreme court abandoned when it amended former Indiana Appellate Rule 17(B) in 1997.
Our authority to review and revise sentences is found in the text of the Constitution and is independent from our general appellate jurisdiction. Bluck v. State, 716 N.E.2d 507, 515 (Ind.Ct.App.1999). In 1970, the Indiana Constitution was amended, in part, to specifically charge this court with responsibility to review and revise sentences "to the extent provided by rule." Inp. Const art. VII, § 63 This Amendment originated in- the Report of the Judicial Study Commission (1966), which explained that "the proposal that the appellate power in criminal cases include the power to review sentences is based on the efficacious use to which that power has been put by the Court of Crim-imal Appeals in England." Comment at 140. The Commission's comments demonstrate that the intent of the Amendment was to expand the role of appellate review, not restrict it.
Until 1997, the'governing appellate rule provided:
(1) The reviewing court will not revise a sentence authorized by statute except where such sentence is manifestly unreasonable in light of the nature of the offense and the character of the offender.
(2) A sentence is not manifestly unres-sonable unless no reasonable person could find such sentence appropriate to the particular offense and offender for which such sentence was imposed.
Rule 2, Indiana Rules for the Appellate Review of Sentences (effective Jan. 1, 1978); former App. R. 17(B) (effective Jan. 1, 1990). The "no reasonable person" provision, however, established an extremely high hurdle for the appellate review of sentences. Indeed, under the former rule, we had to find that the trial judge was an unreasonable person in order to revise a sentence on appeal. Effective March 1, 1997, our supreme court amended former Appellate Rule 17(B), now Rule 7(B), and deleted paragraph two, including the "no reasonable person" language. As a result of that amendment, this court has "more meaningful appellate review" of sentences. Bluck, 716 N.E.2d at 516; see also Walker v. State, 747 N.E.2d 536, 538 (Ind.2001).
But this court's independent constitutional authority to review and revise sentences was again restricted in Prowell v. State, 687 N.E.2d 563, 568 (Ind.1997), cert. denied, 525 U.S. 841, 119 S.Ct. 104, 142 L.Ed.2d 83 (1998). In that case, the majority opinion interpreted "manifestly unreasonable" to mean not whether the sentence is unreasonable, "but whether it is *242clearly, plainly, and obviously so." Id. (emphasis added). Justice Sullivan dissented and emphasized the court's constitutional obligation to review and revise sentences. Id. at 570 (Sullivan, Justice, dissenting). Specifically, he addressed the court's duty not only to review the trial court's sentencing determination, but also "'to determine whether in our judgment the [sentence] is appropriate for the defendant under the cireumstances of the case."" Id. (citations omitted). In subsequent cases, Justice Sullivan has continued to emphasize the court's independent constitutional authority to review and revise sentences.4
Since Prowell, our supreme court has followed the "clearly, plainly, and obviously" unreasonable test in numerous opinions.5 In turn, that test has trickled down to the opinions of this court. See, eg., Walker v. State, 758 N.E.2d 563, 567 (Ind.Ct.App.2001), trams. demied; Powell v. State, 751 N.E.2d 311, 315 (Ind.Ct.App.2001); Pope v. State, 740 N.E.2d 1247, 1253 (Ind.Ct.App.2000); Allen v. State, 719 N.E.2d 815, 820 (Ind.Ct.App.1999), trans. denied. Still, the rule governing our appellate review is clear: "The Court shall not revise a sentence authorized by statute unless the sentence is manifestly unreasonable in light of the nature of the offense and the character of the offender." Ind. Appellate Rule 7(B). As Chief Justice Shepard has said, this standard is "a very tough standard to meet." Walker, 747 N.E.2d at 538. But the "clearly, plainly, and obviously" unreasonable test distorts the rule and reinstates the even tougher standard of review that our supreme court abandoned with its 1997 amendment.
37 6 The words "clearly," "plainly," and "obviously" are synonyms for "manifestly." Prowell, 687 N.E.2d at 568. Since these adverbs have the same or nearly the same meaning (Le., clearly = plainly = obviously ='manifestly), it may appear that the combination of these words is simply redundant, and that a "clearly, plainly and *243obviously unreasonable" sentence is one and the same as a "manifestly unreasonable" sentence under the rule But in Prowell, the words "clearly," "plainly," and "obviously" are joined by the conjunction "and." As used in Prowell, these adverbs are not merely redundant. They are cumulative (ie., clearly + plsinly + obviously). Linked together as a compound modifier, these words indicate a more stringent standard of appellate review than the rule itself provides.
Our supreme court does not always invoke the "clearly, plainly, and obviously" unreasonable test. See Corbett v. State, 764 N.E.2d 622, 632 (Ind.2002); Lashbrook v. State, 762 N.E.2d 756, 759 (Ind.2002); Walker, 747 N.E.2d at 537.6 Chief Justice Shepard and Justices Sullivan, Rucker and former Justice Selby have never written an opinion using the "clearly, plainly, and obviously" clause. This case can be decided without resort to the Prowell test. Because the majority opinion relies on that formulation, I disagree with the statement of the standard of review.
It is our constitutional duty, under the rule, to determine whether in our judgment the sentence is appropriate for the defendant under the cireumstances of the case. The question is whether the sentence is excessive, that is, whether the punishment fits the crime and the criminal. The sentence in this case is not excessive because it is not "manifestly unreasonable in light of the nature of the offense and the character of the offender." App. R. 7(B). Thus, I coneur in the result and would affirm the sentence imposed.

. This Amendment became effective on January 1, 1972.

. See, eg., Dunlop v. State, 724 N.E.2d 592, 598 (Ind.2000) (Sullivan, Justice, concurring with opinion except as to the sentence of life without parole); Echols v. State, 722 N.E.2d 805, 809 (Ind.2000) (Sullivan, Justice, dissenting as to review of sentence); Bonds v. State, 721 N.E.2d 1238, 1244 (Ind.1999) (Sullivan, Justice, concurring except as to issue of whether sentence was manifestly unreasonable, as to which he concurs in result); Dye v. State, 717 N.E.2d 5, 22 (Ind.1999) (Sullivan, Justice, concurring but writing separately "to provide additional review of the appropriate ness of the death sentence"), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 957, 121 S.Ct 379, 148 L.Ed.2d 292 (2000); Thacker v. State, 709 N.E.2d 3, 11 (Ind.1999) (Sullivan, Justice, concurs except as to determination that 175-year sentence was not clearly, plainly and obviously unreasonable).

. Buchanan v. State, 767 N.E.2d 967 (Ind. 2002); McCann v. State, 749 N.E.2d 1116, 1121 (Ind.2001); Winn v. State, 748 N.E.2d 352, 360 (Ind.2001); Lemos v. State, 746 N.E.2d 972, 976 (Ind.2001); Tobar v. State, 740 N.E.2d 109, 113 (Ind.2000); Scruggs v. State, 737 N.E.2d 385, 387 (Ind.2000); Rascoe v. State, 736 N.E.2d 246, 250 (Ind.2000); Spears, 735 N.E.2d at 1168; Noojin v. State, 730 N.E.2d 672, 679 (Ind.2000); Bonds v. State, 729 N.E.2d 1002, 1007 (Ind.2000); Baxter v. State, 727 N.E.2d 429, 436 (Ind. 2000); Walter v. State, 727 N.E.2d 443, 449 (Ind.2000); Evans v. State, 725 N.E.2d 850, 851 (Ind.2000); Dunlop, 724 N.E.2d at 597; Echols, 722 N.E.2d at 809; Warlick v. State, 722 N.E.2d 809, 814 (Ind.2000); Bonds v. State, 721 N.E.2d 1238, 1243 (Ind.1999); Dye, 717 N.E.2d at 21; Merrill v. State, 716 N.E.2d 902, 905 (Ind.1999); Franklin v. State, 715 N.E.2d 1237, 1241 (Ind.1999); Angleton v. State, 714 N.E.2d 156, 161 (Ind.1999), cert. denied, 529 U.S. 1132, 120 S.Ct. 2012, 146 L.Ed.2d 961 (2000), Garrett v. State, 714 N.E.2d 618, 623 (Ind.1999); Riley v. State, 711 N.E.2d 489, 496 (Ind.1999); Carter v. State, 711 N.E.2d 835, 843 (Ind.1999) (Dickson, Justice, dissenting); Thacker, 709 N.E.2d at 10; Brown v. State, 698 N.E.2d 779, 784 (Ind.1998); Weeks v. State, 697 N.E.2d 28, 31 (Ind.1998).

. In Walker, 747 N.E.2d at 537, Chief Justice Shepard, writing for the majority, quoted with approval this court's majority opinion in Bluck concerning our independent constitutional authority to review and revise sentences.