Court Opinion

ID: 9741423
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:55:31.240864+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:24.029251
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(specially concurring).
I specially concur. Proper foundation for disproportionality review was not established at the trial court level for appellate review. See State v. Sheridan, 383 N.W.2d 865, 866-67 (S.D.1986) (Henderson, J., specially concurring); State v. Janssen, 371 N.W.2d 353, 356 (S.D.1985) (Henderson, J., concurring in result). Elaborating further, I wish to express the fact that the sentence was within statutory limits, does not shut the door on review.
It is hard to feel sorry for Holiday considering the gravity of his offense. Evidence presented at trial establishes that he and two other persons appeared one night at the home of a farmer who lived alone. Admission was gained to the home by telling the farmer that their car had broken down and they wished to use his phone. Once inside, Holiday pulled a gun on the farmer, bound him, blindfolded him, and ransacked the house. Holiday struck the farmer on the head several times, causing *873the farmer to bleed profusely. Holiday’s life is tarnished by other crimes of violence going back to a military conviction of assault with intent to commit robbery on December 21, 1970. Holiday was 30 years old when sentenced, but had a long history of violence and drug involvement.
Again, as I have previously pointed out in my special writings, defense counsel must note the three criteria set forth in Solem, then, counsel must proceed to root out statistics, data, and sentences imposed on other criminals in South Dakota, not to mention sentences imposed for the commission of the same crime in other jurisdictions. Granted, if a feller is a one-man practitioner in Pumpkin Center, he faces a Herculean task. Cream, however, even in Pumpkin Center, will rise to the top.