STATE v. ARCENEAUX (2020)

Writ application denied.

The sentence imposed is excessive and disproportionate to the offense the defendant committed. Over twenty years ago, this defendant sold $20 worth of crack cocaine in a hand-to-hand transaction. Because he had previously been convicted of two felonies—simple robbery (1992) and illegal possession of stolen things (1998)—he was first sentenced as a habitual offender to life without parole. Subsequently he was re-sentenced to forty years in prison without benefits, a sentence which—according to the Louisiana Department of Corrections’ average daily cost of imprisonment—will cost Louisiana taxpayers approximately $912,354.

Defendant's complete criminal history—submitted at his re-sentencing—consists entirely of petty property crimes, drug involvement, and status offenses: evidence of a life lived in poverty with minimal access to opportunity rather than evidence that defendant is an irredeemable menace to society. Notably even counsel for the State in the Court of Appeal did not defend the forty-year sentence as constitutional.

Though permitted by law, Mr. Arceneaux's sentence serves no acceptable goal of punishment and is grossly out of proportion to the severity of selling $20 worth of crack cocaine. It offends the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution and Article 1, § 20 of the Louisiana Constitution. Solem v. Helm, 463 U.S. 277, 103 S.Ct. 3001, 77 L.Ed.2d 637 (1983); State v. Sepulvado, 367 So.2d 762 (La 1979); State v. Dorthey, 623 So.2d 1276 (La.1993).

Johnson, C.J., would grant and assigns reasons.