Court Opinion

ID: 9736186
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:46:46.919661+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:04.944042
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(concurring in result).
Although I concur in the result of this case, I am antipathetic to the antiquated, languishing recitation of sentencing citations. It would appear, as one reads the conclusion pertaining to the last issue, that time has apparently stood still in South Dakota concerning criminal sentencing— that we are still living in those days when trial court judgments are virtually unassailable.
Should we consider Solem v. Helm, 463 U.S. 277, 103 S.Ct. 3001, 77 L.Ed.2d 637 (1983)? Could we ponder upon the fact that the sentence in State v. Helm, 287 N.W.2d 497 (S.D.1980), was rendered unconstitutional? Can we pause and meditate about the modification of State v. Williamson, 342 N.W.2d 15 (S.D.1983), and State v. Dillon, 349 N.W.2d 55 (S.D.1984), accomplished in State v. Weiker, 366 N.W.2d 823 (S.D.1985)? Would it not serve our academic pursuit, in learning of the refinements of the sentencing process, to consider State v. Big Head, 363 N.W.2d 556, 565 (S.D.1985), and this author’s special concurrence therein crying out that we cannot observe the law of State v. Helm, 287 N.W.2d 497, when that case has been overruled by the United States Supreme Court? I cannot and will not reach back into the old statutory limit/sentencing cases of this Court to justify a sentence. Solem, Helm, Weiker, and Hollis, infra, are an apocalypse of the future. The old argument “it is within the statutory limits so it is not reviewable” will no longer survive federal scrutiny. See United States v. Hollis, 718 F.2d 277 (8th Cir.1983), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 104 S.Ct. 1309, 79 L.Ed.2d 707 (1984), where that Court held:
*357A sentence within the statutory maximum which is “greatly excessive under traditional concepts of justice” or “manifestly disproportionate to the crime or criminal” is reviewable by federal appellate courts_ This Court cannot, however, substitute its judgment for the discretion committed solely to the district court.
Id., 718 F.2d at 279 (citations omitted). Therefore, as the Assistant Attorneys General of this state continue to mechanically advocate that “it is well within the statutory limits — so the sentence is okay,” I shall steadfastly maintain that such advocacy is old hat. We simply must recognize that the law on sentencing has changed.
One day in a prison could be disproportional punishment. Solem v. Helm, 103 S.Ct. at 3007-08. This exacerbates my belief that we Americans value our freedom highly. It is well that we do so. For, perhaps, if we cling to that value, the next generation might drink from its cup. In Solem v. Helm, 103 S.Ct. at 3009-10, the United States Supreme Court held:
In sum, we hold as a matter of principle that a criminal sentence must be proportionate to the crime for which the defendant has been convicted. Reviewing courts, of course, should grant substantial deference to the broad authority that legislatures necessarily possess in determining the types and limits of punishments for crimes, as well as to the discretion that trial courts possess in sentencing convicted criminals. But no penalty is per se constitutional. As the Court noted in Robinson v. California, [370 U.S. 660, 667, 82 S.Ct. 1417, 1420, 8 L.Ed.2d 758, 763 (1962)], a single day in prison may be unconstitutional in some circumstances. (Footnote omitted.)
In Solem v. Helm, 103 S.Ct. at 3009 n. 16, the highest Court of this land expressed “rather, in applying the Eighth Amendment the appellate court decides only whether the sentence under review is within constitutional limits.” Therefore, I have the temerity to observe that it is not the statutory limits, in isolation, which should be the determining factor but, rather, whether the sentence is within constitutional limits.
Appellant’s brief, page 15, maintains the sentence was disproportionate “when one looks at the circumstances of the crime and Appellant’s previous 50 years of lawful conduct.” Appellant then urges that he received a sentence “more harsh than other individuals who have pled guilty to a charge of driving while intoxicated.” The first contention is an Eighth Amendment argument and the latter pertains to Equal Protection.
There are no statistics, criteria, history of cases, studies, or court records from which this Court could make an intelligent appellate review either as to (a) proportionality or disproportionality under the Eighth Amendment, or (b) encumbering a sentence more heavily because a defendant has exercised his constitutional right to a trial by jury in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. Hess v. United States, 496 F.2d 936 (8th Cir.1974). Hence, we are precluded by inadequate record to probe these contentions fully.
With certainty, the record does disclose two DWI convictions within a period of one year and eight months. A 90-day jail sentence — with 60 days suspended — and a further proviso that two weeks thereof must be served in jail with a balance of 30 days in alcohol treatment — is within constitutional limits.
Baffled are some jurists, scholars, and lawyers by the constitutional principle of proportionality. Oh, that it would, like a nagging toothache, go away! It will not. In 1215, three chapters of the Magna Carta were devoted to the rule that “amercements” could not be excessive. In 1892, in O’Neil v. Vermont, 144 U.S. 323, 339-40, 12 S.Ct. 693, 699-700, 36 L.Ed. 450, 458 (1892), Mr. Justice Field dissenting, noted that the Eighth Amendment “is directed ... against all punishments which by their excessive length or severity are greatly disproportioned to the offenses charged.” So the concept is deeply rooted in our English/American jurisprudence. It deserves *358due deference on the Plains and whereof, thusly, do I write.