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11/22/02 "See News Release 084 for any concurrences and/or dissents."

SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA No. 02-K-0866 STATE OF LOUISIANA VERSUS BRADLEY KEITH PHILLIPS ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL, SECOND CIRCUIT, PARISH OF OUACHITA C/W No. 02-K-0918 STATE OF LOUISIANA VERSUS LAWRENCE P. CLEMONS ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL, FIFTH CIRCUIT, PARISH OF JEFFERSON CALOGERO, Chief Justice, dissents from the denial of the writ, votes to grant the writ, and assigns these reasons: For many years the law in this state was that an appellate court could not amend or set aside an illegally lenient sentence on its own motion, when the defendant alone had appealed and the state had not sought review of the sentence. State v. Jackson, 452 So. 2d 682 (La. 1984); State v. Napoli, 437 So. 2d 868 (La. 1983). We reasoned that an unsought modification of a sentence by an appellate court "either is or appears to be retaliatory in nature," and may have an unconstitutional "chilling effect" on the exercise of a defendant's right to appeal, a right that is favored under our law. Jackson, 452 So. 2d at 683. In 1999, the legislature passed La. Rev. Stat. 15:301.1, entitled "Sentences without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence; correction," which provides that when a criminal statute requires that all or a portion of a sentence 1

imposed for a violation of a statute be served without benefit of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence, each sentence imposed under the provisions of that statute shall be deemed to contain these provisions, regardless of whether the district court has inadvertently or purposefully omitted this language. This court held in State v. Williams, 00-1725 (La. 11/28/01), 800 So. 2d 790, that

Download 2002-K-0918 STATE OF LOUISIANA v. LAWRENCE P. CLEMONS.pdf

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