Court Opinion

ID: 9538831
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:42:18.740013+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:58:11.494578
License: Public Domain

COATS, Judge,
dissenting.
It is impossible to defend Mrs. Pusieh’s crime and difficult not to agree with the severe punishment that the superior court ordered in this case. However, fundamental fairness requires this court to insure that Mrs. Pusich’s sentence is consistent with sentences of similar offenders who have committed similar crimes. This is a basic requirement of the law governing sentencing. Alaska Statute 12.55.005(1) requires courts, in determining an appropriate sentence, to consider “the seriousness of the defendant’s present offense in relation to other offenses[.]” In Williams v. State, 809 P.2d 931 (Alaska App.1991), we pointed out that “[pjaragraph (1) of AS 12.55.005 thus expressly mandates that a court seeking to determine an appropriate sentence in a given case make its decision by considering the case before it in relationship to other cases.” Id. at 935.
Unfortunately, the facts of Mrs. Pusich’s case are far from unique. Every informed citizen is aware of the tragedies caused by those who drink, drive, and kill. The majority decision does an excellent job of setting out the facts of the reported cases. Many of those cases deal with offenders and offenses virtually indistinguishable from the present case.6 And yet, as the majority opinion recognizes, Mrs. Pusich’s sentence is far more severe than any previously reported sentence in this jurisdiction. The most severe sentence that the appellate courts of this state have approved for this type of offense is eighteen years with five years suspended for two counts of second degree murder in Puzewicz v. State, 856 P.2d 1178 (Alaska App.1993).
In light of this background, Mrs. Pusich’s sentence appears to me to be too severe when I compare it to sentences for similar offenders who have committed similar crimes. I accordingly conclude that, under the law as it presently exists, it is the duty of this court to find that the sentence imposed in this case is clearly mistaken.

. Many of these cases involved multiple victims and multiple charges. See, e.g., Gullard v. State, 497 P.2d 93 (Alaska 1972); (defendant plead nolo contendere to one count of manslaughter where his drinking and driving recklessly had resulted in the deaths of four people); Pears v. State, 698 P.2d 1198 (Alaska 1985) (defendant was convicted of two counts of second degree murder and one count of second degree assault); Puzewicz v. State, 856 P.2d 1178 (Alaska App.1993) (defendant was convicted of two counts of second degree murder where defendant had killed two people and injured three others); Jones v. State, 744 P.2d 410 (Alaska App.1987) (defendant was convicted of two counts of manslaughter where his drunk driving killed two people and permanently injured a third).