Court Opinion

ID: 9730496
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:14:05.289519+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:06.905800
License: Public Domain

M. J. Kelly, J.
(concurring). In this case, defendant received a minimum sentence precisely 2-1/2 times greater than the highest recommended minimum resulting from a correct application of the Sentencing Guidelines. The sentencing court justified its departure from the guidelines by pointing to the nature of the drug delivered and defendant’s alleged involvement in two other similar offenses which were dismissed as part of the plea bargain. Both of these factors were already considered in the Sentencing Guidelines formula.
I agree that sentencing courts are not bound by the sentences recommended under the Sentencing Guidelines and may even depart from the recommended sentence on the basis of considerations already factored into the guidelines formula. On the other hand, I think that the Sentencing Guidelines should count for something, especially where, as here, the defendant has no prior criminal record. It appears to me that a minimum sentence of more than two times the highest recommended *812minimum is a comfortable though arbitrary sine qua non for slamming the gate shut on Sentencing Guidelines departures. I am reluctant to go that route or invoke that formula in this case but I take this opportunity to forecast that a besieged conscience may be shocked in mathematical proportions or percentages in the future. At this point, I cannot say that my conscience is shocked by a minimum term of five years for the offense of delivering heroin.