State of Tennessee v. Susan Renee Bise

Summary

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that, after the 2005 amendments to the Criminal Sentencing Reform Act of 1989, sentences imposed by trial courts within the appropriate statutory range are reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard with a presumption of reasonableness, replacing the former de novo review with a presumption of correctness. It further held that a trial court's misapplication of an enhancement or mitigating factor does not remove the presumption of reasonableness or invalidate the sentence unless the trial court wholly departed from the Act. Applying these rules, the Court found sound reasons—deterrence in light of hundreds of local burglaries and the defendant's own conduct—supported the three-year sentences, reversed the Court of Criminal Appeals' reduction to two years, and reinstated the trial court's sentences.