Court Opinion

ID: 9673201
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:08:13.509406+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:20.674502
License: Public Domain

VOGEL, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent from those holdings summarized in syllabus paragraphs 1,4,6, and 7.
So far as I can determine from the briefs of the parties and my own research, no State’s attorney has ever appealed from a sentence in this State. The attempt has now been made. Not only that, it has succeeded.
While the opinion purports to apply only to sentences reduced under Rule 35, its rationale is broad enough to cover all sentences. No other conclusion can be drawn from the language of the majority:
“. . . the discretion vested in the sentencing judge under Rule 35 is not plenary or absolute, but is subject to sound judgment and may not be abused.”
And:
“. . . abuse of discretion is ground for reversal.”
If discretion under Rule 35 is not absolute, then neither is discretion in imposing the original sentence. Abuse of discretion in either case must therefore be ground for reversal.
Even if the majority opinion applies only to sentences reduced under Rule 35, I emphatically dissent. Until this case was decided, we have held that the State has only such right of appeal in a criminal action as is expressly conferred by law. State v. Bauer, 153 N.W.2d 895 (N.D.1967), syllabus ¶ 3; State v. McEnroe, 69 N.D. 445, 287 N.W. 817 (1939). The only statute granting to the State a right to appeal is Section 29-28-07, N.D.C.C. The majority says that appeal in this case is authorized by subsection 4, which gives the State a right to appeal from “An order made after judgment affecting any substantial right of the state.” This provision has been part of our statutes since 1895 (See. 8329, R.C. 1895). It has never before been used to justify an appeal by the State from a sentence.
I suggest, first of all, that it cannot apply because the State has no substantial right to any particular sentence. It has a right only to have that sentence come within the range between the minimum and the- maximum sentences authorized by law. That is the rule as to appeals by defendants. State v. Jochim, 55 N.D. 313, 213 N.W. 484 (1927). I cannot believe that the State has a greater right in this respect than the defendant has.
Neither of the parties has cited, nor am I able to find, any reported decision, among the hundreds citing Rule 35, F.R.Crim.P. holding that the Government has a right to appeal from a reduction of sentence under that rule. Defendants have a right to appeal, but even then, rarely if ever do they succeed in obtaining a reduction of sentence. See 2 Wright Fed.Pract. and Proc.: Criminal § 588.
The California cases cited in the majority opinion do not aid the majority’s argument. California has no equivalent to Rule 35, N.D.R.Crim.P., or rule 35, F.R.Crim.P. See 19 Cal.Jur.3d § 1301. A modification of sentence, unless specifically authorized by statute, is against the law in California. So it follows, as a matter of course, that the State has the right to appeal from an illegal sentence [see People v. Maggio, 96 Cal.App. 409, 274 P. 611 (1929), and 19 Cal.Jur.3d § 1334], just as the State in North Dakota could do so. An illegal sentence would be one that affected a substantial right of the State, which, as I have said, has a right to appeal if the sentence is illegal. The sentence imposed on Mr. Rueb by the district judge was not illegal. It was within the range of the minimum and the maximum, and the judge’s authority to sentence within that range is plenary in North Dakota. *514State v. Wisnewski, 13 N.D. 649, 102 N.W. 883 (1905).
Section 12-55-30, N.D.C.C., which the majority says supports its conclusions, has no bearing on the questions before us. By its plain language that section shows that the statement which the judge is required to file is for the benefit of the Board of Pardons or the Parole Board. The section is found in the chapter of N.D.C.C. on Reprieve, Commutation, Pardon, and Parole. It ends by stating that the judge and State’s attorney “may make any recommendations or suggestions pertaining to the prisoner which may be of assistance to the board of pardons or the parole board in consideration of the prisoner’s case.” Obviously it has no reference to Rule 35, which says nothing about such reports. If one report is filed, it should be enough. Furthermore, and more important, we have held that even total failure to comply with Section 12-55-3 does not affect the sentence. Ex parte Riley, 52 N.D. 471, 203 N.W. 676 (1925). I see nothing in the section to aid the majority argument.
I think it is the law of North Dakota (or it was until the majority opinion came out) that sentencing is solely within the discretion of the judge; that his discretion is unreviewable by the Supreme Court unless he goes beyond the maximum or under the minimum sentences authorized by statute; that under Rule 35, his discretion extends 120 days beyond the date of the original sentence, during which time he may modify that sentence; and that no notice or hearing is required on any motion to reduce a sentence or an order reducing a sentence entered on the court’s own motion.
The rules stated in the majority opinion are, in my opinion, completely unsupported by law or precedent; they give to the State’s attorney a right which only the Legislature can give and not even the defendant has; and they invade the province of the Legislature.
If it is wise to have appellate review of sentences, that is a matter for the Legislature to decide. Proposals to that effect were before the Legislature at the 1975 Session and will be before it in the 1977 Session. The 1977 Session may be surprised to learn that the matter is already settled by judicial fiat.
Of course, I agree to the immediate release of the defendant. It is my opinion that he has been illegally confined ever since the district court modified his sentence, and it is my opinion that the stay granted by this court was improvidently granted. Since there was no right of appeal, there could be no authority to grant a stay pending appeal.