Court Opinion

ID: 9531037
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:06:46.286769+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:19.694915
License: Public Domain

LANSING, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
As the majority opinion recognizes, in State v. Eubank, 114 Idaho 635, 759 P.2d 926 (Ct.App.1988), this Court held that a fixed life sentence is justifiable in only two circumstances — where there is certainty that the nature of the crime demands lifelong incarceration, or there is certainty that the offender could never be safely released into society. In the present case the second of those criteria clearly is not met. There was no evidence before the sentencing court that would support a conclusion that Richard Pederson presents such a threat to the public and is so utterly unsalvageable that a determinate life sentence is necessary for the protection of society. Pederson has a history of emotional problems, but no prior record of violent crimes. There is nothing in the record even suggesting that Pederson will not be amenable to treatment, is unlikely to be rehabilitated, or presents an irredeemable risk of further violence.
Therefore, if the determinate life sentence is supportable, it must be on the first ground enunciated in Eubank — that the nature of the crime demands the most severe punishment that society can impose short of the death penalty. The crime that Richard Pederson committed, killing a six-week-old infant in a fit of uncontrolled rage, is shocking and reprehensible, and requires severe punishment. However, it was not the deliberate product of a coldly premeditated act, but the horrible consequence of a moment’s loss of control. I cannot say that the nature of this crime, intolerable though it is, leads reasonable minds to a moral certainty that a life sentence without possibility of parole is neees-*184sary to adequately punish this twenty-two year old man. I might be led to a different conclusion by the fact that the baby had suffered other injuries if there were evidence that Pederson had inflicted them, but there is not. While it is tempting to assume that the earlier injuries were caused by Pederson, I cannot derive the “certainty” contemplated by Eubank from an unverified assumption.
I would hold that an indeterminate life sentence with a lengthy minimum term of confinement, allowing for the possibility of eventual parole if the Commission of Pardons and Parole one day determines that Pederson’s rehabilitative progress warrants his return to society, is sufficient to meet the sentencing objectives set out in State v. Toohill, 103 Idaho 565, 568, 650 P.2d 707, 710 (Ct.App.1982).