Court Opinion

ID: 9854577
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:09:23.294525+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:23:09.655437
License: Public Domain

NESBETT, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
While I agree that the trial judge’s attempt to amend his original sentence was illegal, I dissent from the order, concurred in by the majority, that the sentence be vacated and the case remanded for resen-tencing.
Although the total of the consecutive sentences imposed in the original sentence amounted to 36 years, under Alaska’s act which is similar in most respects to the usual indeterminate sentencing act, appellant could have received parole from the *824Alaska Board of Parole in less than one year.1
The trial court was dealing with a man concededly of superior intelligence. After graduation from high school he had attended universities in Hawaii and Kansas and had eventually received a degree as an Associate of Arts. Yet during the succeeding 20 years of his life he appears to have been in continuous conflict with the law. During his military service he was court-martialed twice. In civilian life he was arrested in Boise, Idaho in June of 1952 on a charge of passing bad checks. The indicated disposition of the charge is that he was “released to ADA County.” In March of 1955 he was sentenced to serve 15 years in Washington State Prison on a charge of larceny by check. He was released on parole from Washington State Prison within one year. He was arrested in Stillwater, Minnesota in July of 1958 and sentenced to 0-2 years on a charge of concealing and removing mortgaged chattel property. He served one year and four months of this sentence. In 1961 in Denver, Colorado he was sentenced to serve four years for violation of the National Motor Vehicle Transportation Act. He was released on conditional release in February of 1964 and arrested in Chicago in June of 1964 for violation of the terms of his conditional release. He was returned to the United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth in November of 1964 to serve the balance of 408 days on his sentence. He was released from Leavenworth in September of 1965. At that time he was again placed on parole by the state of Washington for his 1955 offense. Parole supervision for the state of Washington was accepted by the Illinois State Parole Authority as a courtesy. Appellant absconded parole supervision in Chicago and came to Anchorage, but was again placed on parole by the state of Washington under the parole supervision of the Alaska Youth and Adult Authority as a courtesy to the state of Washington under the provisions of the InterState Compact Agreement. While under the parole supervision of the Alaska Youth and Adult Authority, on or about July 9, 1966, appellant passed at least eight checks ranging in value from $45 to $233.45, totaling approximately $1,384. In addition, appellant is reported to have written a number of bad checks in the states of Washington, Idaho, and Oregon while in flight attempting to avoid prosecution for his Alaska offenses. Appellant’s parole was finally revoked by the state of Washington, but proceedings have been held in abeyance until it is determined what will be done by the Alaska courts for the offenses which resulted in the sentence now under consideration by this court.
During the time appellant was confined in the Washington State Penitentiary he was givin numerous psychological tests. A portion of the summary of psychological findings states:
This man has demonstrated almost all of the pathological indicators and evidences of gross personality disruption. There is no doubt about his high native intellectual endowment, but he is using this intelligence as a bulwark against society and as a tool for self-exposition rather than as a means by which he may accomplish satisfactory adjustment. He is severely afflicted with an ‘intelligence complex’ and continually attempts to impress others with his superior standing.
Appellant was accorded every consideration by the trial court in Alaska. Competent counsel was appointed to represent him. Prior to the time set for trial the court ordered that a hearing be held to determine whether appellant was mentally competent to stand trial. At this hearing it was established that appellant had been seen over a period of approximately one *825month by psychiatrists and psychologists. Diagnostic interviews were held, psychological tests were conducted and the opinion of the staff, reflected in the testimony of of Dr. Johnstone, was that appellant was capable of assisting in his own defense, that he knew the nature of the charges against him and was mentally competent to stand trial. After the case had been set for trial appellant then withdrew his pleas of “not guilty” and pleaded guilty to all eight counts.
In my opinion the authorities cited in the majority opinion fail completely to sustain the holding that the sentence in this case was a violation of the cruel and unusual punishment prohibition of the United States and Alaska Constitutions. Green v. State 2 is cited for the proposition that when a sentence is so “disproportionate to the offense committed as to be completely arbitrary and shocking to the sense of justice” it is a violation of the cruel and unusual punishment prohibition of the United States and Alaska Constitutions. Green is not authority for that proposition. The holding in Green was that the Alaska statutory minimum of 15 years imprisonment for second degree murder was not cruel and unusual punishment. The quoted language of Green is pure dicta. No question of an excessive sentence was before the court. The contention was that the statute inflicted cruel and unusual punishment.
The majority opinion cites Weems v. United States.3 Weems stands alone in a separate legal world. There the United States Supreme Court held that a provision of the Philippine Penal Code which provided that a public official convicted of falsifying a public disbursing document must be punished by fine and imprisonment at hard and painful labor for a period ranging from 12 years and a day to 20 years, and that the prisoner, during his imprisonment, should continuously carry a chain attached to his ankle and hanging from his wrist, and that he would be deprived during the term of his imprisonment of all civil rights, and was perpetually and absolutely disqualified to enjoy any political rights or to hold office, and was, in effect, placed on parole for the balance of his life, was a violation of the Philippine Bill of Rights, which was identical to the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment. Again, as in Green, the question was whether or not the statute violated the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
Hedrick v. United States4 is also cited as authority for the proposition propounded. Hedrick is not authority for the proposition. There the court applied the general rule that a sentence within the limits of a valid statute does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, citing Smith v. United States, 273 F.2d 462 (10th Cir. 1959).
The United States Supreme Court has had numerous opportunities to apply the cruel and unusual punishment prohibition of the United States Constitution in fact situations similar to the one before us since it decided Weems in 1910, but has not done so. In Gore v. United States 5 the defendant was convicted of having violated, by a single sale of narcotics, sections of the Internal Revenue Code and the Narcotic Drugs Import and Export Act. The District Court imposed sentences for each violation as a separate offense, the sentences to run consecutively. A majority of the court held that allowing multiple punishment did not violate the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy. No mention was made of the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The dissenting opinions of Chief Justice Warren and Justices Douglas and Brennan explored the constitutionality of the sentence but made no' mention of the *826cruel and unusual punishment prohibition of the United States Constitution. In Harris v. United States6 in 1959 the United States Supreme Court was again faced with the question of multiple consecutive sentences. The court reaffirmed its position in Gore v. United States.
The majority opinion herein states:
I have no quarrel with the proposition that it is within the power of the legislature and not the judiciary to determine what punishment may be assessed * *.
The majority opinion goes on to say, however.:
But such a [legislative] power is subject to constitutional limitations, and it is this court’s function to determine whether such limitations have been exceeded.
After clearly stating that the courts will determine whether a legislative enactment is offensive to the constitution, the majority opinion then concludes:
* * * the bare fact that a sentence is within the maximum prescribed by the legislature does not prevent it from violating the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment, (emphasis furnished).
The logic of the majority opinion is strained by its contention that a sentence, which is within the maximum prescribed by a constitutional statute, can nevertheless amount to cruel and unusual punishment. The majority opinion’s reasoning appears to have derived from Weems where the statute was held to be unconstitutional, not the sentence.7
What the majority appears to be holding, without directly saying so, is that the trial judge abused his discretion in imposing cumulative sentences. This amounts to review of a sentence for abuse of discretion which this court held it could not do in Bear v. State.8
The majority opinion herein states:
It is a precept of justice that punishment for crime should be graduated in proportion to the offense.
It is then contended that the trial judge failed to observe this precept.
The constitutions of some states of the United States require that the penalty shall be proportioned to the nature of the offense.9 The Alaska Constitution does not establish any such precept. In fact it is questionable whether such a precept, in the sense that precept is defined as a commandment or rule of law, exists except in those states where it is specifically so provided in the constitution. On the other hand, it is generally conceded that the nature of the offense is one of the factors to be considered in assessing a sentence. It is by no means the only factor to be considered by the trial judge in Alaska as he attempts to determine the sentence that will assist the authorities in realizing the objective of that portion of section 12 of Article I of the Alaska Constitution, which states:
Penal administration shall be based on the principle of reformation and upon the need for protecting the public, (emphasis supplied).
I do not believe that this court has the authority to rule that punishment for a specific crime shall be graduated in proportion to the offense, to the exclusion of other factors which the trial judge must consider in assessing an appropriate sentence.
With respect to bad checks, the legislature of Alaska has already established the precept of graduating the punishment in *827proportion to the offense in AS 11.20.140. If the value given for the check is less than $50, the punishment prescribed is imprisonment in jail for not less than one month nor more than one year or by a fine of not less than $25 nor more than $100. If the value of the check exceeds $50, the defendant is punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary for not less that one year nor more that ten years. It is obvious from the record that the trial judge was aware of this statute and that he observed its requirements when he sentenced appellant. With respect to the one check which was written for less that $50 the trial judge imposed a sentence of only one year. With respect to the seven checks which exceeded $50 in amount the trial judge imposed only one-half the maximum allowable sentence for each offense and sentenced to five years on each count. The trial judge then ordered that the sentences run consecutively. This he had authority to do by reason of the provisions of AS 11.-05.050.10 The majority now holds that since the total of the checks did not exceed $1,384, and since the largest monetary loss suffered by any person was $375, and since all the checks were written on one “spree,” a sentence of 36 years is not proportionate to the offense. The effect of the majority’s holding is to require that the trial court consider only the facts of the particular case before it, disregarding all else that it may have learned about the accused, including his past criminal record, his propensity for committing crimes, and his eligibility for parole, and establish a sentence proportionate to the amount of monetary loss suffered by the citizens directly affected by the crimes. The precept mentioned in the majority opinion is diametrically opposed to the statutory “precept” announced by the legislature with respect to second and third repeaters where the trial judge is admonished to consider doubling sentence, as will be pointed out later.
If the defendant is convicted of two or more crimes, before judgment on either, the judgment may be that the imprisonment upon one conviction begins at the expiration of the imprisonment of any other of the crimes. If the defendant is imprisoned upon a previous judgment on a conviction for a crime, the judgment may be that the imprisonment commences at the expiration of the term limited by the previous judgment.
It is obvious that the trial court was aware of the fact that the appellant could obtain parole in less than one year; that he had been in trouble with the law on previous occasions for the writing of bad checks and was in fact still on parole to the state of Washington for that offense; that he had violated the terms of his parole or conditional release at least five times; that his personal conduct over the years had substantiated the psychological summary of the Washington State Penitentiary that he was using his intelligence as a bulwark against society and as a tool for self-exposition, rather than as a means by which he might accomplish a satisfactory adjustment. The constitutional requirement that the possibility of reforming the appellant be weighed in relation to the need to protect society established the broad perspective to to be imployed by the trial judge in fashioning a sentence. Proportioning the ultimate sentence imposed to the facts of the latest crime, in the case of a fourth repeater, is not by any means an overriding precept.
The majority and the concurring opinions both express the view that since the offense was merely one against property, the sentence imposed was excessive. The majority describes the sentence as being “what amounts to a life sentence.” The concurring opinion describes it as a sentence “depriving this 46-year-old human being of his liberty for a period of 36 years.” What both opinions choose to assume is that appellant will be required to actually serve a full 36 years in prison in spite of the fact that the legislature has provided by statute the means by which he could be paroled within one year. In fashioning a sentence under Alaska law the trial judge does not have the prerogative *828of ignoring the fact that the legislature has established a Parole Board and given it liberal authority to grant parole. The fact that the person sentenced has the opportunity to acquire a rehabilitated outlook and convince the Parole Board that he is ready for early release into society is one of the paramount factors to be considered in sentencing. Nor is this court privileged to ignore the existence of the Parole Board and the fact that in the exercise of its statutory authority it has a direct influence on every sentence of imprisonment which is imposed. To do so is to place undue emphasis on the potential length of the sentence to the exclusion of other important factors such as appellant’s character analysis as revealed by the reports of psychiatrists, psychologists, prison authorities and the probation officer’s report; his prior criminal record; and the present apparent prognosis for his social rehabilitation. Overriding all of the before-mentioned factors in importance is the knowledge that the person sentenced will receive some therapy in prison; that the prison psychiatrists and psychologists will regularly report the prisoner’s progress to the Parole Board which has statutory authority to release the prisoner as soon as it has become convinced that he is ready to return to society.
The minority view of the majority opinion holds that the sentence is “completely arbitrary and shocking to the sense of justice and thus amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.” (emphasis supplied). The original sentence imposed by the judge was, in effect, a sentence of 0-36 years. In my opinion it is not legally possible to classify such a sentence in the case of a fourth repeater, fully sanctioned by statute as it is, as “arbitrary and shocking.” Furthermore, “arbitrary and shocking” are not the legal equivalent of “cruel and unusual” as that term is used in the United States and Alaska Constitutions. The cruelty against which the Constitutions protect a convicted man is cruelty inherent in the method of punishment.11 Cruelty implies something inhuman and barbarous.12 Imprisonment for a crime as prescribed by the legislature cannot, therefore, be legally classified as cruel punishment. It is the accepted modern method of punishment.
Both the United States and the Alaska Constitutions require that the punishment be both cruel and unusual, in order to violate their prohibition. There is nothing constitutionally “unusual” about a sentence of imprisonment. Imprisonment was the only method of punishment available to the trial judge in this case under AS 11.20.240 (2), with respect to seven of the eight counts where the amount of the checks exceeded $50. Imprisonment in jail or a fine were the only methods of punishment available under AS 11.20.240(1) with respect to the check which was less than $50 in amount.
In my opinion the constitutional ban against “cruel and unusual” punishment was never intended by the framers of our constitutions to be applied in the manner suggested in the majority opinion. No court in the United States has so held on similar facts.
What concerns my colleagues is the fact that the trial judge ordered that the sentences run consecutively. This creates the possibility, remote as it is, that appellant might conceivably have to serve the full term. This could not happen unless appellant’s attitude in prison for a sustained period of years was such that the Parole Board felt that he was not ready to' be released into society. Appellant’s past prison records indicate that he adjusted fairly well within the state and federal prisons; that he took an active part in various programs and pursued recommended aides such as group therapy. The trial judge was justified in assuming that appellant would attempt to qualify for parole at the earliest possible time and that he would *829eventually succeed. In the unlikely event that the Parole Board continued to deny parole over an extended period of years, it would be for reasons determined to be in the best interests of society and in accordance with the Board’s statutory responsibility.
The majority has ordered that the sentences below be vacated and that appellant be resentenced. The basic reason seems to be that the sentence is arbitrary and shocking to the sense of justice because not in proportion to the offense. No criteria are announced which would assist the trial judge in fashioning a new sentence that is “in proportion to the offense.” Before imposing the original sentence the trial judge had the benefits of an exhaustive probation officer’s pre-sentence report, the findings of psychiatrists and psychologists appointed by the court to determine appellant’s mental capacity to stand trial, the reports of prison officials and psychiatrists from appellant’s three previous institutional commitments, the probation officer’s evaluation and recommendation, the district attorney’s recommendation, a summary of appellant’s past criminal activity, and his own evaluation of appellant based upon personal observation in court.
With this background information the trial judge imposed a sentence the minimum of which could be less than one year. The actual period of imprisonment was entirely dependent upon the effort appellant made to effect his own rehabilitation. The majority now holds, on different legal theories, that this sentence is excessive based upon the assumption that appellant would never qualify for parole. The trial judge had assumed that appellant would qualify for parole. This is quite apparent from his act in later modifying the sentence on a motion to reconsider, to provide that appellant should not be given paro'le until he had served a minimum of five years. The effect of the attempted modification was to increase the severity of appellant’s sentence by providing that the Parole Board could not grant parole before he had served five years. The majority recognizes that the effect of the modification would be to increase the severity of appellant’s sentence, but insists on ignoring the parole aspect entirely when considering the sentence in relation to the cruel and unusual punishment argument.
It is obvious that the trial judge was trying to insure that appellant served at least five years. Service of 1 year of a IS year sentence in Washington, of one year and seven months of a two year sentence in Minnesota, and of four years in Leavenworth had neither rehabilitated appellant nor deterred him from further criminal activity. The trial court’s dilemma on remand will be what sentence to impose in order not to shock the sense of justice of the majority and still protect the interests of the public by confining appellant a sufficient length of time to either rehabilitate his distorted outlook or at least deter future deviations in conduct by the increased severity of his sentence.
The majority opinion states:
I am not unaware of appellant’s criminal record. But I believe that even with appellant’s history of criminal activity a sentence of such severity is not justified.
I believe the majority owes a duty to the trial judge to explain why, in spite of appellant’s record of conviction of at least eleven felonies, the sentence imposed has been found to be so drastically severe as to violate the cruel and unusual punishment prohibitions. The Alaska legislature’s directive to the trial judges of Alaska with respect to the punishment of repeaters is in sharp contrast, and, in my opinion, overrides the view of the majority in an area of the law which has traditionally been reserved to the executive and legislative branches. In AS 12.55.050(2) it is provided that a person previously convicted of two felonies may be sentenced to twice the prescribed term of imprisonment and if previously convicted of three or more felonies,
then on the fourth conviction he shall be adjudged an habitual criminal, and is punishable by imprisonment for not less *830than 20 years nor more than the remainder of his natural life.13
On remand the trial judge could resen-tence appellant to five years on each felony count and to one year on the misdemeanor count, provide that only three of the sentences on the felony counts run consecutively, that the sentences on the other counts run concurrently, and that appellant not be granted parole before five years.14 This would assure that he served at least one year longer than his last four year experience in Leavenworth. It would accomplish the same objective as the modified sentence, which we have held to be illegal, and could hardly shock the sense of justice of the majority. Other combinations of sentencing on the eight counts could be employed to accomplish the same end without creating a large total in years.
My colleague Justice RABINOWITZ has concurred in the view that the sentence does not violate the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment. His vote to vacate the sentence and remand the case for resentencing appears to be based entirely on his dissenting minority view in Bear v. State15 that this court has the power to review a legal criminal sentence for abuse of discretion.
My colleague Justice DIMOND adheres to his view that the sentence violates the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment, which is now a minority view, and likewise votes to vacate the sentence and remand the case for resentencing.
Thus, the order to vacate and remand for resentencing has for its legal basis two minority views of this court. In my opinion the order is illegal because it does not have for a basis a legal view concurred in by a majority of the court.
I would reinstate the original sentence herein and affirm.

. AS 33.15.180 states:
A state prisoner, other than a juvenile delinquent, wherever confined and serving a definite term of over 180 days, or a term the minimum of which is at least 181 days, whose record shows that he has observed the rules of the institution in which he is confined may, in the discretion of the board, be released on parole.

. 390 P.2d 433, 435 (Alaska 1904).

. 217 U.S. 349, 307, 30 S.Ct. 544, 54 L.Ed. 793, 798 (1910).

. 357 F.2d 121, 124 (10th Cir. 1966).

. 357 U.S. 386, 392, 78 S.Ct. 1280, 2 L.Ed. 2d 1405, 1410 (3958).

. 359 U.S. 19, 22, 79 S.Ct. 560, 3 L.Ed. 2d 597, 599 (1959).

. See 217 U.S. at 378, 30 S.Ct. 544, 54 L.Ed. at 803.

. 439 P.2d 432 (Alaska 1968).

. Green v. State in footnote 11 lists those states of the United States where constitutional provisions require that penalties shall be proportioned to the nature of the offense as follows: Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and West Virginia.

. AS 11.05.050 states:

. State of Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber, 329 U.S. 459, 464, 67 S.Ct. 374, 91 L.Ed. 422, 426 (1947).

. Ex parte Kemmler, 136 U.S. 436, 447, 10 S.Ct. 930, 34 L.Ed. 519, 524 (1880).

.AS 12.55.050 states in its entirety:
A person convicted of a felony in this state who has been previously convicted of a felony in this state or elsewhere, if the same crime elsewhere would constitute a felony under Alaska law, is punishable as follows:
(1) If the person is convicted of a felony which would be punishable by imprisonment for a term less than his natural life, and had previously been convicted of one felony, then he is punishable by imprisonment for not more than twice the longest term prescribed for the felony of which that person is convicted.
(2) If the person has previously been convicted of two felonies, then he is punishable by imprisonment for not more than twice the longest term prescribed herein for a second conviction of felony.
(3)If the person has previously been convicted of three or more felonies, then on the fourth conviction he shall be adjudged an habitual criminal, and is punishable by imprisonment for not less than 20 years nor more than the remainder of his natural life.

. AS 33.15.230(a) provides that the court may, “when in its opinion the ends of justice and best interests of the public require,” designate in the sentence the minimum term at the expiration of which the prisoner is eligible for parole, which shall not be more than one third of the maximum sentence imposed.

. 439 P.2d 432 (Alaska 1968).