Court Opinion

ID: 9883281
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 01:39:29.915748+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:22.323107
License: Public Domain

NEWMAN, J., Dissenting.
“[T]he purpose of imprisonment for crime is punishment. This purpose is best served by terms proportionate to the seriousness of the offense with provision for uniformity in the sentences of offenders committing the same offense under similar circumstances. The . . . provision of uniformity of sentences can best be achieved by determinate sentences fixed by statute in proportion to the seriousness of the offense Further, when choosing an upper, middle, or lower term of sentence, “the court shall order imposition of the middle term, unless there are circumstances in aggravation or mitigation of the crime.”
Those are the Legislature’s words. (Pen. Code, § 1170, subds. (a)(1) and (b); italics added.) Yet in this case the majority endorse two Judicial Council rules that authorize the sentencing courts to consider not only “facts relating to the crime” but also “facts relating to the defendant.” I dissent. The Judicial Council rules are ultra vires, I believe, because they are not consistent with section 1170. They flout the finding of the Legislature that “the provision of uniformity of sentences can best be achieved by determinate sentences fixed by statute in proportion to the seriousness of the offense.” (See my preceding paragraph.) The Legislature clearly has pronounced that the punishment should fit the crime, not the criminal.
I have been persuaded by the State Public Defender’s brief filed here on February 9, 1979, that “The court should determine the legislative intent by focusing on those portions of the Determinate Sentencing Law *838(DSL) directly on point, rather than relying on other statutory provisions that predate the DSL or [on] peripheral parts of the DSL itself which deal with different subjects.” (See also his brief filed on Oct. 20, 1978 for persuasive critique of the reasoning of the Judicial Council Advisory Committee.)