Court Opinion

ID: 9633553
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:52:21.60053+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:37.307399
License: Public Domain

Rosellini, J.
(concurring) — I have signed the majority opinion; however, I wish to add that I concur with the view expressed in the first paragraph of Judge Hunter’s dissent, that the imposition of punishment of murder in the first degree is in the province of the jury. This court has never had the power to change the severity of a sentence as one of the dissenting opinions suggests that we do in this case. Never in its history has the court attempted to do so. It is for the legislature to determine what sentences may be imposed (so long as it does not provide for the inflicting of cruel and unusual punishment), and for the jury to determine whether, in a given case, the ultimate punishment shall be inflicted. The substitution by this court of its judgment on the question would do violence to the concept that this is a nation governed by laws and not by men.