Court Opinion

ID: 9723584
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:21:49.961707+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:50.128044
License: Public Domain

VAIDIK, Judge,
concurring in part, dissenting in part.
Although I agree with the lead opinion by Judge Friedlander that a trial court must identify aggravating and mitigating circumstances "in every instance except when the trial court imposes the presumptive sentence without explaining its decision," op. at 234, I disagree with the lead opinion that because the trial court failed to identify aggravators and mitigators here, we should "undertake the task of determining the appropriate sentence ourselves" as opposed to remanding the case for the trial court to do so. Id. Therefore, I concur in part and dissent in part.
The task of identifying aggravating and mitigating cireumstances is a matter best entrusted to our trial courts and juries and not to us. See Ind.Code § 35-88-1-7.1; Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296, 124 S.Ct. 2531, 159 L.Ed.2d 403 (2004). This is so because the identification of aggravating and mitigating factors often depends on credibility determinations. And trial courts and juries are in a better position to judge the credibility of the evidence as they view the evidence first-hand. Our task, then, is to review the findings of aggravators and mitigators for an abuse of discretion only after the findings are made. Admittedly Indiana Appellate Rule 7(B) authorizes appellate courts to revise sentences, but that function should not give us a green light to identify aggravators and mitigators in the first place. In other words, our authority to revise sentences does not mean that when a trial court fails to identify aggravators and mitigators, we should do that for them. I therefore disagree with the lead opinion's decision to identify and weigh the aggravators and mitigators in this case. Instead, I would remand the case for the trial court to do so.