Court Opinion

ID: 9530293
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:58:53.011755+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:04.104850
License: Public Domain

BOOCHEVER, Justice,
dissenting.
Rape ranks among the most serious offenses and may justify a lengthy sentence in order to protect the public, reaffirm societal norms, and deter the offender and others. Newsom v. State, 533 P.2d 904, 911 (Alaska 1975); State v. Chaney, 477 P.2d 441, 446 (Alaska 1970). Nevertheless, in the circumstances of this case I think Shelton’s fifteen-year sentence is excessive. We have affirmed sentences of fifteen years or longer for rape only in aggravated circumstances in which a defendant used a deadly weapon,1 the crime was particularly violent or heinous,2 the offender had been previously convicted of sexual offenses,3 or there was a combination of these factors. Arguably, Shelton is a repeat sexual offender; however, in only one case, Torres v. State, 521 P.2d 386 (Alaska 1974), has the offender received a longer sentence as a result of a second rape committed before the defendant served a sentence for the first offense. In the other two cases in this category, the defendant actually served time in prison and was either on probation or parole or had just been released when he committed the second offense.4 Torres may be distinguished on the grounds that the defendant had been convicted prior to the second offense, had a prior criminal record of nonsexual offenses, and the victims in both cases involving sexual misconduct were very young. In my opinion, Shelton’s offense does not place him within the category of offenders who have received fifteen-year sentences.
It is apparent from the sentencing transcript that the trial judge considered Shelton’s offense, committed within a very short time of his first offense while he was released on his own recognizance, to demonstrate that Shelton was a recidivist who deserved an enhanced penalty. Under Alaska’s new criminal code, a defendant who commits a crime while released prior to a trial may become subject to an enhanced sentence.5 A trial judge might, in his discretion, consider such a factor in determining an appropriate sentence here, but in my opinion the trial judge gave this consideration too much weight. Both offenses occurred within a short time of each other, under the influence of alcohol. The defendant, who was twenty-five years old, had never been involved with the law before. *28As we have explained in the context of habitual offender statutes, the underlying rationale is that the “convicted criminal has not taken advantage of the opportunity to reform [himself].” State v. Carlson, 560 P.2d 26, 30 (Alaska 1977). Shelton was not tried as an habitual offender, but it seems to me that a similar rationale applies to enhancing his sentence in this case. Shelton had no real opportunity to receive coun-selling or to reform his conduct in a structured institutional environment prior to the second offense. Had the second offense occurred after Shelton had served prison time, with the full consequences of his first crime brought home to him and with an opportunity to participate in a program of alcohol rehabilitation, then I believe the fifteen-year sentence would have been justified.
Finally, I note that the American Bar Association has recommended that
[e]xcept for a very few particularly serious offenses . . . the maximum authorized prison term ought to be five years and only rarely ten.
American Bar Association Project on Minimum Standards for Criminal Justice, Sentencing Alternatives and Procedures § 2.1(d) at 48 (approved draft 1968). The advisory committee which drafted this section could agree unanimously that only one crime would justify a term in excess of ten years, and that crime was murder. Id. at 61. I am persuaded that rape may in some circumstances justify a term in excess of ten years, but I am not persuaded that this case presents such circumstances. In my opinion, a substantial period of imprisonment would be justified in this case, but the sentence of fifteen years is clearly excessive.

. Lacy v. State, 608 P.2d 19, Op.No. 2039 (Alaska 1980) (defendant used gun to abduct two women and raped one of them); Tate v. State, 606 P.2d 1 (Alaska 1980) (defendant with long history of prior crimes and antisocial conduct raped victim at knife point); Newsom v. State, 512 P.2d 557 (Alaska 1973) (defendant used a knife; previous history of sexual offenses).

. Mallott v. State, 608 P.2d 737, Op.No. 2027 (Alaska 1980) (rape of three-year-old girl); Wikstrom v. State, 603 P.2d 908 (Alaska 1979) (defendant choked victim, had anal intercourse, forced victim to have fellatio, and inserted a metal object in victim’s vagina).

. Moore v. State, 597 P.2d 975 (1979) (defendant raped two victims at gunpoint within short time of completing probation for a previous felony and while on parole for another); Newsom v. State, 533 P.2d 904 (1975) (rape occurred within a week of release from probation for previous sex offense); Torres v. State, 521 P.2d 386 (Alaska 1974) (defendant raped victim after receiving ten-year sentence for lewd and lascivious conduct).

. See Newsom and Moore, supra note 3.

. AS 12.55.155(c)(12) allows a trial judge to enhance a presumptive sentence for a crime committed while a defendant was released pri- or to trial on another offense. Shelton was not subject to the presumptive sentencing of the new criminal code because his offenses occurred prior to January 1, 1980, its effective date. Nevertheless, the factors for aggravating and mitigating circumstances contained in AS 12.55.155(c) and (d) are useful guidelines of factors to be considered in determining a suitable sentence that is not subject to presumptive sentencing.