Court Opinion

ID: 9611350
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:55:35.973048+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:13.407573
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
dissenting.
What I said in State v. Harwood, 98 Idaho 793, 572 P.2d 1228 (1977), is equally applicable here, and nothing is to be gained by repetition. Tipton’s offenses against the State and his waiver of hearing all preceded the release of opinions in In re Doe, 98 Idaho 40, 557 P.2d 634 (1976), and People v. Chi Ko Wong, 18 Cal.3d 698, 135 Cal.Rptr. 392, 557 P.2d 976 (1976).
In re Doe now declares the law in Idaho as to waiver hearings, but it was not the authoritative construction of I.C. § 16-1819 until it was announced, prior to which time, and in In re Doe itself, the Attorney General of Idaho took the identical position here taken by Tipton’s counsel — that a waiver determination was not appealable.
Although I agree that In re Doe has become the law, the Court having addressed the matter of interpreting I.C. § 16-1819, Harwood was wrongly decided on the matter of a retrospective application of In re Doe with the Court placing reliance on some of the language from Wong, but totally ignoring that the rule of Wong was not applied in Wong’s case, but made to apply prospectively only.
In Harwood, I questioned the benefit to society and to Harwood himself in being incarcerated in the state penitentiary for 5 years on his first “adult” offense. Here I raise the same question to a senténce 10 years longer than that meted out to Harwood. I have no quarrel with the fact that Tipton’s juvenile record showed that as a juvenile he had not been amenable to corrective and rehabilitative measures; but I do question the use of a juvenile record as a predicate upon which to assess punishment for a defendant’s first adult conviction. Nor can I avoid noting the disparity of sentences meted out to Harwood and to Tipton, both youthful burglars — 5 years for Harwood and 15 years for Tipton. Presumably Tipton was a more offensive and offending juvenile. Be that as it may, it would seem that while some time in the penitentiary might benefit Tipton, for his first adult offense he will remain behind bars, at considerable public expense, long after he may have matured and benefitted from the lesson that crime does not pay. The sentence should be reduced to 5 years.