State v. MilsonState v. Milson
The defendant, Michael Milson, pleaded guilty on August 13, 1979, to manslaughter, a violation of
FACTS
Defendant was indicted by the grand jury of Acadia Parish for first-degree murder of Floyd Sennette. On November 21, 1978, defendant pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. On August 13, 1979, defendant withdrew his plea of not guilty and entered a plea of guilty to the reduced charge of manslaughter. The trial court deferred sentencing, ordered a pre-sentence investigation and released defendant on bond. No further action was taken
“... I don‘t know how it happened. I got the pre-sentence investigation report dated January—I mean December 19, 1979. Taking into consideration the Christmas holidays and so forth, it would have been January, 1980, in all probability, before Mr. Milson could have been sentenced. That is a period, as I see it, of four years to this date. So that I don‘t think Mr. Milson will have any reason or justification for further appeals in this matter.
I am going to—I have already vacated the ten year sentence, and I am going to reduce and now sentence him to a period of six years at hard labor with the Department.” (Emphasis added.)
On January 20, 1984, defendant filed a notice of intention to seek supervisory writs to annul the sentence, and by separate motion sought appellate review of the trial court‘s action.
Defendant brings this matter for review as an appeal rather than as a supervisory writ as required by
UNREASONABLE DELAY
Article 874 provides:
“Sentence shall be imposed without unreasonable delay. If a defendant claims that the sentence has been unreasonably delayed, he may invoke the supervisory jurisdiction of the supreme court.”
It is clear that a defendant is statutorily entitled to the imposition of sentence without unreasonable delay. City of Baton Rouge v. Bourgeois, 380 So.2d 63 (La.1980); State v. Johnson, 363 So.2d 458 (La.1978). Principles of fundamental fairness dictated by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibit inordinate delays in post-conviction proceedings such as the imposition of sentence when the delays prejudice the defendant. State v. Duncan, 396 So.2d 297 (La.1981). In determining whether the delay was unreasonable or prejudicial, the appellate court adopts a flexible approach in which all of the circumstances are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Duncan, supra; City of Baton Rouge, supra. The sanction for an unreasonable delay in sentencing is the divestiture of the trial court‘s jurisdiction to sentence the defendant. State v. McQueen, 308 So.2d 752 (La.1975).
The record in the case sub judice reveals a long, unjustified delay without good cause of approximately four and one-half years. The record is void of any evidence that defendant was ever notified of a sentencing date earlier than January 17, 1984, or that defendant concealed his whereabouts from the trial court or the State.
The State argues that the defendant was not prejudiced by the delay in sentencing because the trial court took this into consideration when it re-sentenced and reduced defendant‘s sentence from ten to six years. We disagree. The reduced sentence did not cure the unreasonable and unjustified delay. Article 874 nor the jurisprudence
DECREE
The ruling of the trial court is reversed and it is divested of jurisdiction to sentence the defendant for this offense; therefore, the sentence imposed on the defendant, Michael Milson, on January 20, 1984, is vacated and the defendant is hereby ordered discharged.
REVERSED.