Court Opinion

ID: 9529663
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:53:09.512396+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:53.203056
License: Public Domain

Hennessey, C.J.
(concurring). I concur with the result and the reasoning of the court’s opinion. I add these few *313words to bring emphasis to the court’s expressed “reservation” as to the severity of the sentence imposed. The only incident which resulted in a guilty verdict was minor. It was a blow which “barely connected” with the victim’s back; it was a “glancing blow,” with no evidence of visible injury or after effects. We may speculate that the sentencing process was perhaps influenced by the indictments as to two more serious episodes of violence. However, the jury, by their not guilty verdicts, rejected those charges, and as a consequence they would have no proper bearing on the sentence. Perhaps the sentence here was unduly influenced by knowledge of other charges pending against the defendant at the time of this trial. Perhaps, also, the sentence was influenced by certain related circumstances which are abhorrent to most persons, but the defendant was not charged with those circumstances in any indictment. In sum, the sentencing result here is one which focuses on the compelling need for reasoned application of the broad sentencing discretion ordinarily available to our trial court.