Court Opinion

ID: 9547336
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:45:56.033065+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:17:37.489141
License: Public Domain

LOHR, Justice,
specially concurring.
I join the judgment of the court but do not subscribe to all of its reasoning.
The majority predicates its construction of section 16-11-306, 8 C.R.S. (1984 Supp.), in important measure on the conclusion that the “obvious purpose” of that legislation was to address the problem of “the unequal treatment of indigent offenders who, due to their inability to post bail and the statutory discretion reposed in sentencing courts to grant or refuse credit for presentenee confinement, would serve longer periods in jail than their wealthier counterparts who were able to avoid presen-tenee confinement by posting bail and thereby secure their presentence freedom.” Maj. op. at 794. I know of no support for that conclusion, the majority cites none, and to me it is not self-evident. The purpose of the legislation could have been to eliminate perceived disparities in the manner in which the statutory discretion was being exercised by trial judges across the state, to implement a decision that day-for-day credit would promote the perception of fairness of sentencing in the eyes of the public and of the persons upon whom sentences are imposed, or to accomplish some other objective not within our ken.
Notwithstanding my view that we have no basis upon which to determine with certainty the legislative purpose underlying section 16-11-306, 8 C.R.S. (1984 Supp.), I believe that the majority has adopted a fair and reasonable construction of the statute. Therefore, I join in the judgment of the court.