Court Opinion

ID: 9581355
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:14:05.720887+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:53.272810
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(dissenting).
Constitutional or statutory affrontery to the appellant’s rights, do they exist here? I think not. Appellant was adequately advised of his rights, competently represented by counsel, voluntarily entered a plea of guilty, sentenced within the terms of the plea bargain, and can only be permitted to withdraw his plea after sentence “to correct manifest injustice.” SDCL 23A-27-11. This question is begged: Is the sentence manifestly unjust for the crime perpetrated?
Sentencing Judge Jeffrey Davis went to great lengths to explain the sentence. Expressly, he indicated the sentence was not based upon revenge. Rather, on the record in open court, Judge Davis related the harsh prison sentence to deterrence, rehabilitation, and protection of society. In reading the sentencing transcript, it is evident that the sentencing judge had thoroughly contemplated the sentence and its ramifications. He had reviewed the psychological and psychiatric reports and called these to mind while sentencing. Furthermore, appellant’s confession * was considered by the trial judge as part of the plea bargain. This confession, in State v. Lohnes, 324 N.W.2d 409 (S.D.1982), we held should be suppressed^ and reversed a second-degree murder conviction based partly on this confession. Judge Davis was obviously concerned over appellant’s lack of impulse control and non-anxiety over doing wrong. Specifically, the rationale of Judge Davis was to accomplish a “long-term structured environment” in keeping with the recommendations of mental experts. At the time of the commission of the crime, appellant was an escapee from the South Dakota State Training School; clearly, appellant’s life was following a journey of crime. This journey ended with an act of violence and instantaneous death inflicted upon an elderly motel operator in Rapid City, said violence resulting from appellant firing a slug from a stolen .243 Remington rifle into Mantzoros’ head, just three to five inches from the skin surface.
Appellant and his counsel now find the sentence to be unexpectedly severe. They seek to accomplish that which is forbidden by United States v. McKoy, 645 F.2d 1037, 1040 (D.C.Cir.1981). Having tested the punishment waters, they wish to bail out of the plea bargain. The burden is on appellant to convince the courts, and particularly the trial judge, that manifest injustice will be done if the plea and conviction are not set aside. United States v. Tiler, 602 F.2d 30, 35 (2nd Cir.1979). Generally, to' set aside the plea and conviction, it is further required that appellant-movant assert his innocence to get his foot in the door to establish “manifest injustice” within the meaning of Fed.R.Crim.P. 32(d). Said Federal criminal provision is identical to SDCL 23A-27-11. Here, appellant is not crying out that he is innocent but is indignant over the length of his sentence. Essentially, he is quarreling with the judge’s discretion and he is telling the world that his sentence is manifestly unjust.' How often, in law, the killer tells society that he is being treated unjustly. How outraged the killer can become when the steel doors slam shut and *691encase him behind bars. A confession exists here and a plea of guilty exists here. No protest of innocence is heard at this time.
Judge Davis should not be faulted for explaining, in detail, the rationale of his sentence. Nor, particularly, should his sentence be reversed upon the basis that he detailed the mechanics of the statutes of this state pertaining to computation of good time and the involvement of the Board of Pardons and Paroles. Judge Davis’ comments were, to a great degree, invited by the supplication of the defense for a distinguishment and application of justice and mercy for appellant. Judge Davis expressed:
If Mr. Lohnes is to be rehabilitated, the Board of Pardons and Parole will have to determine when. In the event he is not rehabilitated, it is my intention that society be protected for as long as possible.
This statement, in reality, was expressing the law and his judicial discretion to protect society from appellant. Modern theory of sentencing propounds that a sentencing judge recite his reasons for the sentence. This is to escape kingly judgments and serve as a basis for some type of review. Judge Davis’ sentencing was detailed, rationale oriented, and declared with deep deliberative process.
Burton Lohnes did not get “life.” And he did not get “death.” Burton Lohnes took the life of an old man, who was minding his shop, and the curtain of eternity fell forever upon him. Lohnes, although in prison, has an opportunity to repent and rectify his life; as he does so, he awakens each morning in a living world with its never-ending ray of hope. All is not lost for Burton Lohnes. In parole, he has hope. In commutation of sentence, he has hope. In living each day, he has hope. In serving his time, he may earn his salvation. If a good prisoner, he can petition for a commutation. In all of this, he has hope. Equating his life of hope and rehabilitation behind bars on the scale of justice — with the life of an innocent old man which he callously took — I come to the ultimate conclusion that there was no manifest injustice in the sentencing process or the sentence. This was a crime of enormity and its punishment cannot be pierced nor eradicated with a lance of legal logic. I would affirm.

 The confession, Exhibit 41 in the murder conviction trial, reflects that appellant left the motel to specifically get a gun to shoot Mantzoros; that upon appellant’s arrival at the motel, Mantzoros fled into a room. That, thereupon, appellant kicked in the door to that room and shot Mant-zoros in the head. Awaiting trial, appellant wrote to his cousin, as reflected by the trial record, writing that he was shooting at the cops who tried to arrest him after the killing and declared therein: "I was having Fun.” This letter mirrors his true feelings: Not one ounce of regret for his dastardly deed. I take judicial notice of the record of the first appeal under State v. Cody, 322 N.W.2d 11 (S.D.1982).