Court Opinion

ID: 9741402
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:55:03.509128+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:23.810347
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(specially concurring).
As I comprehend appellant’s brief and advocacy, he urges that a three and one-half year prison sentence violates the cruel and unusual punishment clauses of the State and Federal Constitutions. Under previous decisions of this Court, appellant believes his sentence, as a first-time felony offender, should shock the conscience of this Court per a line of old cases cited in my dissent in State v. Helm, 287 N.W.2d *867497, 499 (S.D.1980),* and/or is disproportionate to the crime.
Appellant specifically seeks harbor in my special writing in State v. Janssen, 371 N.W.2d 353, 356 (S.D.1985) (Henderson, J., concurring in result). Therefore, the reader is referred to that writing for particulars. To assert disproportionality, all trial counsel must, in the words of the old-timers, “root hog, or die!” In other words, counsel must dig, work, sweat, read, study, and produce statistics, criteria, history of cases, studies, court records, etc. See Janssen, 371 N.W.2d at 357. A foundation must be established, at the trial court level, for the appellate advocacy to come.
Pertaining to a “shocking of the conscience of the Court,” I am simply not shocked in this scenario. First, appellant, although a first-time felony offender, has a bad track record in criminal activity as reflected by the DCI records. Second, appellant caused extensive damage to Dakota Junior High School in Rapid City at the (a) Administrative Office, (b) Ticket Office, (c) Room 112, (d) Room 118, (e) Kitchen, (f) Room 106, (g) West Hallway, and (h) Fire-doors on floors 2, 3, and 4. Appellant and a compadre in crime burglarized a public institution and went on a rampage of destruction. Taxpayers and school children all suffered.
Therefore, although as a matter of principle, a sentence must be proportionate to the crime which the defendant has committed, and appellant’s advocacy is correct in this regard, Solem v. Helm, 463 U.S. 277, 103 S.Ct. 3001, 77 L.Ed.2d 637 (1983), the foundation for review is deficient; and, although the sentence seems facially severe for a “first-time felony” offender, DCI records do reflect an alignment with criminal activities, so I concur in the sentencing length. Thus, I would affirm. As an old mountain remains standing, after a storm has laced it with lightning and crashed upon it with thunderous roar, I remain steadfast to the belief that a sentence will not — per se — survive constitutional scrutiny — simply because it is “within statutory limits.” One day in prison could be disproportional punishment. Solem v. Helm, 463 U.S. at 287, 103 S.Ct. at 3008, 77 L.Ed.2d at 647.

 The Helm sentencing was reversed by the United States Supreme Court. Solem v. Helm, 463 U.S. 277, 103 S.Ct. 3001, 77 L.Ed.2d 637 (1983).