Court Opinion

ID: 9615437
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:36:38.135084+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:47.667440
License: Public Domain

*270CONNOR, J.
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent from Issue II in the majority opinion and would reverse Follin’s sentence and remand for resentencing. The trial judge committed an error of law by improperly considering Follin’s decision to proceed with a jury trial. As noted by the majority, the trial judge made it quite clear by his statements that he was giving Follín a harsher sentence because she had not pled guilty, as most of her co-defendants had.
He specifically stated he gave consideration to the defendants who entered guilty pleas and admitted their guilt.6 [1] The judge further asserted he could not ignore another defendant’s admission of guilt.7 [2] Such sentencing comments have been expressly disapproved and warrant reversal. See Davis v. State, 336 S.C. 329, 520 S.E.2d 801 (1999) (disapproving the trial judge’s statements regarding other defendants’ guilty pleas and admissions of guilt); State v. Brouwer, 346 S.C. 375, 387, 550 S.E.2d 915, 922 (Ct.App.2001) (disapproving the trial judge’s “serious consideration for someone admitting their guilt” as being “the first step towards rehabilitation”).
Furthermore, I disagree with the majority’s interpretation of Brouwer. Specifically, the majority’s conclusion that “when the record clearly reflects an appropriate basis for a disparate sentence, the sentencing judge may impose a different sentence on a co-defendant in a criminal trial” is troubling. In my opinion, a sentencing review pursuant to Brouwer requires us to confine our analysis to the judge’s comments on the record at sentencing. I do not believe the language of Brouwer permits a de novo review of whether there is an “appropriate basis” for a sentence, especially where, as here, to do so would negate a judge’s comments which are clearly based on *271an improper consideration of a defendant’s decision to exercise her right to a jury trial.

. [1] For example, in Johnny Martin's case, the trial judge stated "[t]he other people got consideration for their sentence because they entered a guilty plea.... I gave credit for admitting guilt.” The trial judge specifically incorporated these statements during Follin’s sentence reduction hearing.

. [2] The trial judge stated, "as I mentioned in sentencing Johnny Martin and I have said throughout and will continue to say I can’t ignore [co-defendant] Benji Adams admitting his guilt....”