Court Opinion

ID: 9597900
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:03:54.909944+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:27:22.316514
License: Public Domain

RIGGS, J.,
concurring.
I agree with Judge Richardson and the majority that the conditions of probation are beyond the scope of our review *466for the reasons discussed in the majority opinion. I write sep¡ ■ rately to address the constitutional issues raised by Judg Warden’s dissent.
I cannot agree that the condition of probation imposed in this case amounted to “cruel and unusual punishment” under either the state or federal constitutions. Nowhere in the record in this case is there any indication that the trial judge designed defendant’s probation to subject him to disgrace. The condition was one of several designed to accomplish appropriate goals. The trial judge viewed the disputed condition of probation as one intended to warn the public: “The community has a right to know that Mr. Bateman is a dangerous sex offender.” I agree.
I would hold on the merits that this type of punishment is cruel and unusual when its purpose and probable primary result is public humiliation. All criminal punishments do and should carry with them some degree of public condemnation and humiliation, but when the purpose of the punishment imposed is to rehabilitate the offender or to protect the public, our society agrees to tolerate those incidental effects. The condition of probation imposed in this case was only one of several conditions of probation and was primarily designed to provide protection to the public in the light of the fact that defendant’s previous jail sentence for a similar offense has failed. That the condition was innovative, or that it might be accompanied by some degree of public notoriety, or even humiliation, should not be determinative in this case, any more than it would be in a case involving a traditional prison sentence. Judge Warden is wrong in characterizing the requirement for posting the signs as cruel and unusual punishment.