Court Opinion

ID: 9732733
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:33:19.064941+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:32.295623
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE HEIPLE specially concurring: The majority’s decision in this case is regrettably correct. It is regrettable because justice suffers when a convicted felon who is a drug addict receives probation while a different felon, similarly situated except for the drug addiction, receives a penitentiary sentence. Such disposition goes beyond recognizing drug addiction as a cause of crime, it positively rewards it. Since the Teschner decision, the statute has been amended twice. A 1979 amendment added language that defendants be otherwise eligible for probation. However, in 1981, the legislature revised the statute again and took that language out. Hence, for all practical purposes, we are back to the ruling in Teschner even though it is grounded on the law as it was written in 1977.