Court Opinion

ID: 9734560
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:38:04.154818+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:49.202606
License: Public Domain

WAHL, Justice
(concurring in part, dissenting in part).
I agree that the evidence of defendant’s guilt is legally sufficient to affirm his conviction. I must respectfully dissent, however, from the decision of the majority to refuse to modify a sentence which is unfairly disparate under the circumstances of this case.
The facts testified to by the victim indicate that the conduct of the co-defendant was far more egregious than that of defendant and consisted of repeated acts of criminal sexual conduct committed over a lengthy period of time and at several locations. I cannot give lip service to the sentencing guidelines provision that “[t]he exercise of constitutional rights by the defendant during the adjudication process” should not be used as a reason for departure and at the same time approve a sentence nearly twice that of a co-defendant of equal or greater culpability whose only distinguishing characteristic was that he pleaded guilty rather than going to trial.
I would reduce the sentence to the 45-month presumptive sentence received by the co-defendant.
SIMONETT, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.