Court Opinion

ID: 9583083
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:34:40.876073+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:12.568068
License: Public Domain

BUTTLER, J.,
specially concurring.
Although I agree with the majority that neither minimum sentence could be imposed on the remanded juvenile, I do so for different reasons.
I agree with the dissent that “mandatory minimum sentence” as used in ORS 161.620 prohibits a minimum sentence that the court, by statute, is required to impose, except the minimum sentence mandated by ORS 163.105(1) for aggravated murder. Accordingly, the 10-year sentence that is mandated by ORS 163.115(3)(b) is prohibited by ORS 161.620.
The additional 10-year minimum sentence was not permissible under ORS 161.620, but not simply because it is a minimum sentence, as the majority states, nor because it is not mandated, as the dissent would have it. Rather, the *175predicate for that minimum sentence is missing. Defendant was convicted of murder. ORS 163.115(3) provides:
“ (a) A person convicted of murder shall be punished by imprisonment for life.
“(b) When a defendant is convicted of murder under this section, the court shall order that the defendant shall be confined for a minimum of 10 years without possibility of parole, release on work release or any form of temporary leave or employment at a forest or work camp.
“(c) When a defendant is convicted of murder under this section, the court, in addition to the minimum required by paragraph (b) of this subsection, may order that the defendant shall be confined for a minimum term of up to an additional 15 years without possibility of parole, release on work release or any form of temporary leave or employment at a forest or work camp.
“(d) The minimum term set forth in paragraph (b) or (c) of this section may be set aside by a unanimous vote of the State Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision.”
Although the additional 10-year minimum sentence that the court imposed under subsection (3)(b) is not one that the court was required to impose, that subsection presumes that the court has also imposed the mandatory 10-year minimum under subsection (3)(b). Because the presumed 10-year minimum is not permissible here, the predicate for the “additional” 10-year minimum is lacking, and the court was not authorized to impose it.
Accordingly, I agree that neither minimum sentence was permitted in this case.
Edmonds, J., joins in this specially concurring opinion.