Court Opinion

ID: 9785902
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 22:45:50.851625+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:35.719908
License: Public Domain

MATTHEWS, Justice,
with whom FABE, Justice, joins, concurring.
I join in the court’s order but write separately because I believe that any sentence *522that includes more than five years of unsus-pended time is excessive in this case.1 This is true whether Michael’s conduct is among “the least serious conduct” for the offense as a matter of law or his case is referred to the three-judge panel because imposing the presumptive sentence without taking into account Michael’s rehabilitative potential would work a manifest injustice.

. Apart from Benboe v. State, 698 P.2d 1230 (Alaska App.1985) (described briefly in Justice Matthews’s concurrence below) no sentencing decisions published by this court or the court of appeals appear to involve first-degree sexual assault convictions with facts analogous to those at issue here. But four unpublished decisions of the court of appeals involve generally similar facts and thus provide a useful framework for considering Michael's least-serious-conduct claim. See State v. Armstrong, 2002 WL 31185806; Harrison v. State, 2004 WL 1567749; Inga v. State, 2004 WL 719626; and Broeckel v. State, 1998 WL 10267. The conduct in Michael's case seems mitigated in comparison to the conduct considered in all these cases; and, as today's order observes, Armstrong expressly affirmed a superior court finding that the defendant's conduct was among the least serious in its class. Since no other sentencing decisions appear to address first-degree sexual assault convictions involving less serious conduct, there seems to be no realistic basis for concluding that the overall facts of Michael’s case are not among the least serious of all cases where defendants are actually convicted and sentenced for first-degree sexual assault. Notably, although these decisions are unpublished and their legal analysis is therefore not particularly germane, the court of appeals has previously approved the use of its unpublished sentencing decisions as a source for establishing realistic sentencing guidelines and benchmarks. See Rudden v. State, 881 P.2d 328, 332 n. 2 (Alaska App.1994).