Court Opinion

ID: 9630675
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 10:17:02.743469+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:40:32.891904
License: Public Domain

BAKES, Chief Justice.
The defendant respondent Greene was convicted in November, 1976, on two counts of illegal possession of drugs and was sentenced not to exceed five years on Count I, and not to exceed three years on Count II, the court retaining jurisdiction for 120 days. The court assessed costs and imposed fines of $2,500 on each count in the event that defendant received probation at the end of *898the 13) day period. That conviction was affirmed on appeal. State v. Greene, 100 Idaho 464, 600 P.2d 140 (1979). Subsequent to the decision on appeal, Greene made a motion for reduction of sentence pursuant to I.C.R. 35. The trial court obtained an updated presentence investigation report, and after a hearing entered an order dated December 5,1979, suspending the execution of the prison term, placed the defendant on probation for five years, and as a condition of probation imposed a fine of $2,500 on each count, to be paid within six months. The state appeals the trial court’s order dated December 5, 1979, suspending the sentence, arguing that that action is too lenient. We affirm.
As to this Court’s jurisdiction to hear such an appeal, Art. 5, § 9, of the Idaho Constitution provides that “the Supreme Court shall have jurisdiction to review, upon appeal, any decision of the district courts, or the judges thereof .... ” By that provision we have jurisdiction. State v. Lewis, 96 Idaho 743, 536 P.2d 738 (1975); State v. Berlin, 95 Idaho 225, 506 P.2d 122 (1973). The order of the trial court dated December 5, 1979, suspending the execution of sentence and placing the defendant on probation is appealable by the state as a matter of right under I.A.R. 11(c)(6) and I.C. § 19-2801, rather than as a matter of discretion, as in State v. Lewis, supra, and State v. Berlin, supra. The appeal is properly before us.
Going to the merits of the state’s argument on appeal, it is asserted by the state that the trial court abused its discretion in entering its order dated December 5, 1979, in which it suspended the execution of the prison sentence and placed the defendant on a five year probation imposing a fine of $5,000. Recognizing this Court’s broad jurisdictional authority to hear appeals from “any decision of the district courts,” defendant respondent Greene nevertheless argues that to set aside the district court’s order of December 5, 1979, would be to reimpose the five and three year sentences imposed by the original judgment. Defendant asserts that this would constitute an enhancement of a sentence on appeal which the defendant claims this Court has no authority to do.1 Even assuming that we have authority to review and enhance a defendant’s sentence on appeal, we have reviewed the record before the trial court, and applying the same standard of review in this case that we would apply in reviewing a criminal sentence on appeal by a defendant, State v. Birrueta, 101 Idaho 915, 623 P.2d 1292 (1981); State v. Cotton, 100 Idaho 573, 602 P.2d 71 (1979); State v. Seifart, 100 Idaho 321, 597 P.2d 44 (1979), we conclude that the trial court would not have abused its discretion in entering its order dated December 5, 1979.
DONALDSON and SHEPARD, JJ., concur.
MeFADDEN, J., concurs in result.

. The United States Supreme Court recently determined that enhancement of a criminal sentence on appeal does not violate the double jeopardy clause of the United States Constitution, Amend. 5. United States v. DiFrancesco, 449 U.S. 117, 101 S.Ct. 426, 66 L.Ed.2d 328 (1980). Several state courts, encountering no double jeopardy bar, have recognized their authority to increase sentences on appeal. See, e.g., People v. Wickenhauser, 75 Ill.App.3d 145, 30 Ill.Dec. 838, 393 N.E.2d 1185 (1979); State v. Henrich, 162 Mont. 114, 509 P.2d 288 (1973). Since we are not modifying or increasing this defendant’s sentence, we are not required to, nor do we reach the issue of whether such modification would offend the double jeopardy clause of the Idaho Constitution. See Idaho Const. Art. I, § 13.