State v. Smith

Summary

The Supreme Court of Louisiana granted the State's certiorari writ to decide whether the court of appeal erred in vacating the defendant's forty-year hard labor sentence for armed robbery as unconstitutionally excessive. Holding that appellate review of a sentence asks only whether the trial court abused its broad sentencing discretion — not whether a different sentence would be preferable — the court found the resentencing judge thoroughly weighed aggravating and mitigating factors, treated the disparity with co-defendant Johnson's twenty-year sentence as a non-controlling factor, and imposed a term in the lower half of the statutory range and within the range previously found acceptable for first-offender armed robbers. Accordingly, the sentence was not excessive, the court of appeal's judgment was reversed, and the trial court's sentence was reinstated.