Court Opinion

ID: 9688989
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:15:42.868279+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:43.391544
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(specially concurring).
In concurring, I wish to express that, in this state, the constitutional source of a trial judge’s authority to suspend imposition of sentence has been restricted by the legislature, but this does not encompass the terms and conditions of the probation. Frankly, the probation here was long, onerous, and questionably impossible to perform, i.e., reimbursing insufficient funds checks in excess of $158,000. It does not appear that Macy had the financial wherewithal to generate such a substantial amount of money nor to comply with the repayment schedule. However, Macy’s revocation did not arise from his failure to make required payments; rather, his revocation of probation arose by writing an insufficient funds check, the very type of criminal activity upon which he was prosecuted. This long, onerous, and highly questionable repayment plan must be viewed, from a standpoint of reason, in this vein: Macy agreed to it. He did not want to be sentenced to the State Penitentiary and he agreed to this hard sentence to secure probation. He apparently lived by the probation conditions for two years but in the third year of his probationary term, he had a significant relapse. It is difficult, indeed, for Macy to now complain of the very conditions to which he consented.
Accordingly, I specially concur in the majority opinion.