Court Opinion

ID: 9700314
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 21:19:48.107355+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:07.055323
License: Public Domain

COLLINS, Justice,
with whom CLIFFORD, Justice, joins, concurring.
I agree with the Court that Bolduc should be resentenced pursuant to the principles enunciated in State v. Hewey, 622 A.2d 1151 (Me.1993). On remand, the sentencing court will have the opportunity to articulate its reasons for selecting a basic sentence. I write separately, however, to state that, in my view, a vehicular manslaughter may justify a basic sentence in excess of twenty years. When the Legislature increased the maximum sentence for Class A offenses to forty years, see P.L.1987, ch. 808, codified at 17-A M.R.S.A. §§ 1252(2)(A), 1252-B (Supp.1993), it indicated that sentences in excess of twenty years could be appropriately imposed only for those few offenses that could be categorized as “among the most heinous and violent crimes committed against a person.” State v. Lewis, 590 A.2d 149, 151 (Me.1991) (quoting the Statement of Fact attached to L.D. 2312, No. H-720 (113th Legis.1988)). In my view, some vehicular manslaughters could be categorized as most heinous and violent. See, e.g., State v. Constantine, 588 A.2d 294 (Me.1991) (defendant with .25% blood-alcohol level took parents’ car without permission and in violation of agreement he signed with parents’ insurance company, drove one mile on wrong side of road, at night, with no headlights on, colliding with and instantly killing another motorist). Such a categorization would not be inconsistent with the intent of the Legislature. See P.L.1989, ch. 872 (“An Act to Increase the Penalty for Vehicular Manslaughter and to Remove the Habitual Drunk Driver from the Highways”).