Court Opinion

ID: 9675565
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:57:51.360212+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:35.551591
License: Public Domain

McCORMICK, Justice
(concurring specially).
I concur in the result and all of the opinion except the basis of the court’s rejection of the claim that the mandatory sentence requirement of section 902.7, Code Supp.1977, infringes the separation of powers precept in Ia.Const. art. Ill, section 1 (1857). I believe courts have inherent common-law. power to defer the imposition of sentence unless barred from doing so by statute. See State v. Wright, 202 N.W.2d 72, 81-82 (Iowa 1972) (special concurrence). The legislature has the power to deviate from the common law and has done so here. Therefore the separation of powers clause was not violated.