Court Opinion

ID: 9849259
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:37:14.578576+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:10.798113
License: Public Domain

*477Robert W. Hansen, J.
(dissenting). The majority has written a very broad decision on a very narrow point of law. So this dissent is to the dicta as well as to the result.
What can only be described as dicta is the majority opinion’s reaching out to limit a trial court’s sentence imposing authority following a new trial in a criminal case. All that is before the court in this case is the authority of a trial court to impose a sentence in the situation where a sentence has been set aside but the trial and finding of guilt have not been.
The majority “see no good reason” for distinguishing the situation where resentencing alone is involved from the more usual case where a new trial has been ordered, held, and, on the finding of guilt, the defendant is again before the court for sentencing. The very words, “new trial,” suggest the difference. A second trial is not a movie film played over again for a second time. If it were, there would be little reason for seeking a second showing. As every trial lawyer knows, no two trials are alike. A defense attorney may not succeed in shaking the testimony of an eyewitness the second time around. An alibi attempt that was convincing on a first trial may deteriorate to transparent perjury on a re-trial. A defendant on the witness stand may drop a pose of contriteness and reveal an underlying hostile, psychopathic attitude toward the victim or society. Variants in the two trials may well go beyond the finding of guilt to be pertinent on the question of the proper sentence to be imposed. It is enough to require a trial judge, on the evidence presented and record made in the case he has just heard, to impose the proper and indicated sentence. A trial judge would have to have the memory of an elephant to recall the earlier case, place, side by side, testimony elicited on a particular point in each case, compare and evaluate the two records. To require an “affirmative showing” of the differences between two cases as the only basis for an increased sentence on new trials is to place upon trial judges a heavy burden. Where the same judge tries both *478cases, it is to require the barely possible. Where a different judge conducts the second trial, it is to require the impossible.
There is an obvious difference between dollars awarded in a personal injury suit and time spent in a penal institution, but it ought not blur the sound reasons for the traditional insistence that a new trial means or should mean a new trial, a starting over again, a beginning anew —in all types of litigation, criminal trials included. The majority opinion concedes that the clear majority of the decisions from other jurisdictions hold that, where a new trial is ordered, it is to mean an entirely new trial on the question of guilt or innocence and as to the sentence to be imposed. The trial court that is considered competent to determine the issue of guilt is considered competent to decide the proper sentence to be imposed, with neither ceiling nor basement to be set in advance by the appellate courts. Two cases, one in California and one in New Jersey, are cited in the majority opinion to justify the contrary result of assuring defendants that, while they might not win on a new trial, they will not lose more than they have already lost. Both involved death penalties. Understandably, judges shrink from exposing a defendant who has once escaped the noose or gas chamber from risking the death penalty in the new trial that he sought. However, judicial tailoring of sentencing procedures to avoid a gallows consequences of a new trial is not the most persuasive authority for generally placing a halter on the right of a trial judge to impose the sentence he finds proper, particularly in a state that long ago abandoned the death sentence. As Gertrude Stein would have put it, a new trial is a new trial is a new trial or should be. As to the suggestion that the possibility of a more unfavorable outcome of a new trial deters convicted criminals from seeking postconviction remedies, the quintupling in very recent years of filing of appeals, writs of error and writs of habeas corpus, gives very little support to such implication.
*479We come then to the only question raised by this appeal: Was the trial court in this case justified in imposing, on resentencing only, a penalty of increased severity ? In this much narrower area of appellate review, we see no reason to dissent from the Maraño v. United States result that the trial court has the right “. . . to take subsequent events into consideration, both good and bad.” 1 In such situation, as far as the case is concerned, there has been just one trial. That trial is over, the record is made, the finding of guilt has been entered. There is here no problem presented of comparing and evaluating differences, variances and nuances between two separate trials. The only variable would necessarily involve new presentence information, either more favorable or less favorable to the defendant. If no new and additional information favorable to the defendant comes to the court on the second sentencing, the defendant is not entitled to expect or secure a lessened sentence. If no new information unfavorable to the defendant is presented on the second sentencing, not presented at the time of the first sentence imposition, the defendant is entitled to expect that no sterner penalty will be imposed. If nothing new has been added, favorable or unfavorable to the defendant, it would follow that the same sentence would be reimposed.
However, applying this yardstick to the sentence imposed in the case before us shows no reason for reversing what the trial court did in this case. Seven months before he appeared before Judge Callow in this case, the defendant had been before Judge Callow for sentencing on a plea of guilty and a finding of guilty on 16 counts of issuing worthless checks and four counts of forgery. He was then placed on probation for three years conditioned on making restitution and paying court costs. When he reappeared for sentencing following revocation of probation, he was given three-year-concurrent sentences on the *480four forgery counts. This sentence was set aside because of lack of counsel at the time of imposing sentence. On the appellate court-ordered resentencing, the same sentence was imposed except that two of the four forgery terms were to be served consecutively.
In the interim between the two sentencing hearings, something new had indeed been added. At the resentenc-ing, to quote the majority opinion, “. . . the court first became aware of the fact that defendant had three past felony convictions that were unknown when the original sentence was imposed.” The probation officer’s testimony at the resentencing established that the defendant’s background included a 1956 forgery conviction in Chicago and 1958 forgery and burglary convictions in Milwaukee. Particularly for a type of crime in which the rate of recidivism is high, it is difficult to imagine a more compelling reason for an increased sentence than this new evidence of two earlier convictions of the same offense plus another felony conviction. The majority opinion states that “Apparently based on defendant’s entire record the harsher sentence was imposed.” Who would disagree? Nonetheless, the majority sends the case back because it is “. . . not convinced that the court relied solely on this information . . . and did not satisfactorily state the reasons for the record . . . .” It appears predictable that, aside from a perhaps welcome break in prison routine, nothing will be accomplished by having the defendant return to hear the same sentence pronounced on the same record and for the same reason. Where the trial court’s action so transparently meets the test set by the majority ruling, little will be accomplished by the trip from Waupun to Waukesha and return.
On the question of whether the defendant is entitled to credit for time served on the first sentence, the trial court stated: “This court would observe that the law of Wisconsin provides that any time previously served by *481the defendant shall be considered as time served upon any subsequent sentence imposed and this right accrues to Mr. Leonard’s advantage.” The majority agrees that this is correctly stated. To contend that the trial judge was intending that no credit be given for time already served on the sentence he was then imposing is to go beyond the clear meaning of the sentence. This is a trial court mandate to the state agency involved to give credit to the defendant as to eligibility for parole and as to completion of sentence for the time served on the first sentence. The defendant is to be given credit for the period of February 14 to October 4, 1967, as ordered by the trial judge. If the state prison authorities were to challenge the right of a trial court to thus order credit given for time served (and no such challenge is even suggested by the record) that bridge can be crossed when it is encountered.
The judgment of the trial court should be affirmed. I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice Leo B. Hanley joins the writer in this dissent.

 Marano v. United States (1st Cir. 1967), 374 Fed. 2d 583, 585.