Court Opinion

ID: 9763795
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:56:01.059361+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:56:40.728288
License: Public Domain

ALEXANDER, J.,
with whom, CLIFFORD, J., joins, concurring.
[¶ 35] I concur in the result affirming the sentence. I write separately because, *330in my view, the sentencing court properly and without error addressed the reasons for and possible consequences of its sentence.
[¶ 36] Apprendi is not implicated in this sentence. As the Court’s opinion recognizes, Burdick was sentenced to a term of years within the range appropriate to the attempted murder charge submitted to and decided by the jury. Apprendi only requires that a jury decide sentencing factors when those factors serve to increase the maximum possible sentence that could be imposed or the category of the crime upon which sentencing will be imposed. Apprendi does not prevent the State from arguing or the court from considering uncharged sentencing enhancement factors as aggravating circumstances, as long as the sentence imposed is within the range appropriate to the crime as charged and convicted.
[¶ 37] Thus, for example, after an aggravated assault conviction, 17-A M.R.S.A. § 208 (1983) (Class B), a sentencing court should not ignore evidence that the defendant intentionally or knowingly caused serious bodily injury to the victim with the use of a dangerous weapon, acts which, if charged, would raise the sentencing classification to a Class A crime.19 We would want the sentencing court to consider such evidence as an aggravating factor. In imposing the sentence, the court would be limited to the ten-year range of a Class B crime rather than the forty-year range of a Class A crime, although we would expect that the sentence within the Class B range would be higher because of the uncharged enhancement factors shown by the evidence. Such an enhancement within the range of possible sentences for the lesser crime is not error, and it does not become error if the court states that the reasons for the sentence include the evidence of the enhancement factor. We want to encourage trial courts to state the reasons and consequences that underlie their sentencing decisions. An opinion that holds that reference to an uncharged sentence enhancement factor and consideration of that factor in sentencing is error will discourage trial courts from openly discussing their sentencing considerations.
[¶ 38] In this case the trial court conducted a proper sentencing hearing. It then stated on the record its reasoning for imposing the sentence, and the possible consequences of its sentence. This is not error. Discussion of the reasons for and consequences of sentences is necessary to properly impose a sentence of imprisonment with the many factors and consequences that must be addressed pursuant to 17-A M.R.S.A. §§ 1151, 1252, 1252-B, and, particularly, 1252-C (1983 & Supp. 2000), which calls for articulation of a three-step sentencing consideration. See State v. Hewey, 622 A.2d 1151, 1154-55 (Me.1993).
[¶ 39] The sentence the court imposed, forty years, was within the range allowed for an attempted murder conviction as it was pled and as it was found by the jury. The law, articulated in Apprendi or otherwise, requires no more.
[¶ 40] The fact that a sentence may be a “de facto” life sentence does not change its legality.20 In that aspect, this case is on all fours with State v. Goodale, 571 A.2d *331228 (Me.1990). Goodale was convicted of murder. Id. at 228. At sentencing, the trial judge “did acknowledge that defendant’s case lacked the aggravating circumstances that would justify a life sentence ....” Id. at 229. The court then imposed a seventy-five-year sentence. Id. The defense asserted on appeal that the trial court had imposed an illegal “de facto” life sentence. Id. We rejected the assertion and stated that:
[a]n inappropriate sentence is not necessarily an illegal sentence. Although it is possible that a sentence for a term of years could be the functional equivalent of a life sentence, we are not faced with such a situation in this case. The sentence before us, when objectively reviewed, is not demonstrably the equivalent of a life sentence. The illegality of the sentence does not appear clearly on the face of the record.
Id. See also State v. Sweet, 2000 ME 14, ¶ 36 n. 8, 745 A.2d 368, 377 n. 8 (Calkins, J., dissenting) (characterizing the defendants’ sentences as “de facto life sentences”).
[¶ 41] For Apprendi issues to be generated, the sentence would have to be illegal. The sentence is not illegal but fully appropriate within the range of the trial court’s discretion based on the charged and convicted offense. Thus, I would not hold that the sentence was error.

. Elevated aggravated assault is a Class A crime if the State pleads and proves that the defendant intentionally and knowingly caused serious bodily injury with the use of a dangerous weapon. 17-A M.R.S.A. § 208-B (Supp. 2000).

. If a "de facto” life sentence renders a sentence under a term of years statute illegal, then the same forty-year sentence that is legal for a twenty-year-old would be illegal for a fifty-year-old.