Court Opinion

ID: 9850441
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:57:27.938879+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:37.276798
License: Public Domain

DURHAM, Justice
(concurring in the result):
I concur in the result of the majority opinion and in the analysis contained in sections I, II, III and VI. I do not, however, subscribe to the treatment of the state constitutional provisions afforded in sections IV and V, although I agree with the analysis under federal law. In section IV, the majority opinion intermingles the federal and state analysis and fails to make clear the principles governing each. Section V contains neither an exploration of the distinct content and meaning of the federal and state provisions regarding cruel and unusual punishment1 nor a reasoned conclusion that no distinctions exist. An examination of the briefs discloses that no attempt was made by counsel to illumine the state constitutional law questions beyond mechanical reliance on federal precedents. Under those circumstances, we should either require supplemental briefing, give the questions full treatment sua sponte, or decline to treat them at all; but in any event we should be clear and explicit about the course we undertake in developing principles of state constitutional law. Otherwise, we abdicate our responsibility to articulate the meaning of our own constitutional provisions and simply “march lock-step with interpretation given to ... the United States Constitution.” State v. Jackson, Mont., 672 P.2d 255 (1983) (Shea, J., dissenting).
ZIMMERMAN, J., concurs.

. This question has apparently never been addressed by this Court, although the structure of the opinion in Davis v. Walton, 74 Utah 80, 276 P. 921 (1929), suggests that the state and federal provisions do require separate analysis.