Court Opinion

ID: 9635531
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:53:21.854105+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:29.471552
License: Public Domain

MANDERINO, Justice,
concurring.
I agree with the majority that an accused cannot be punished by a more severe sentence because he chose to *581exercise his constitutional right to stand trial rather than plead guilty. Here, the majority concluded that the sentencing judge may have been improperly influenced by appellant’s choice to stand trial rather than plead guilty. The record, however, clearly reveals that the judge was so influenced. Our constitutional duty is thus to take the unequivocal position that the sentence imposed here is inappropriate. We give no realistic protection to a person’s constitutional right to stand trial before his peers when we tell sentencing judges that their sentences may have been proper ones even though they imposed a harsher sentence than would have been imposed had the appellant pleaded guilty.
Although the majority does not reach the issue, it makes no sense to suggest that a refusal to plead guilty and stand trial may not be considered as a factor in sentencing a defendant, but a guilty plea could be considered by a sentencing judge as a mitigating factor in a proper case. The chilling effect is the same in either situation; an accused who believes he can get a lighter sentence by pleading guilty will eschew his right to a trial by jury and enter a guilty plea. Moreover, it seems incongruous to suggest that a judge may not penalize an accused for not pleading guilty, but can reward the accused for pleading guilty. The ABA Standards noted in the majority opinion at footnote 5, supra, not only defy logic but also place an impermissible chill on the exercise of the right to trial by jury.