State Breaches Plea Agreement by Opposing Rule 35 Motion When it Agreed to be Bound to Sentencing Recommendation

The Court issued an opinion today in a Harboring a Fugitive case where the plea agreement provided, in part, that:

"The State and Defendant agree to be bound to following sentencing agreement:
-- that Defendant be granted a Withheld Judgment;
-- that no jail time be imposed;
-- that Defendant be placed on probation for a term at the court's discretion."

At sentencing, the state was good to its word. However, some police officers who were injured by the fugitive the defendant was harboring (defendant's husband who was killed by the police), made victim impact statements and told the judge that the defendant should go to prison. The judge agreed and sentenced the defendant to five years with three fixed. The defendant then filed a Rule 35 motion which the state argued against. The motion was denied.

On appeal, the Supreme Court held: 1) the charging document was adequate to confer jurisdiction on the court; 2) the court did not abuse its discretion in finding the officers were victims; 3) the police officers were not bound by the prosecutor's sentencing recommendation because their statements were made as victims and not as state agents, but that 4) the prosecutor breached the plea agreement by opposing the Rule 35 motion.

"The somewhat unusual language of the plea agreement, '[t]he State and Defendant agree to be bound to following sentencing agreement,' dictates our conclusion that the agreement was breached. The significance of this language is that the State was not simply bound to the agreed-upon recommendation at [defendant's] sentencing, but the broad language represents an unqualified commitment by the State to adhere to the sentencing recommendation at every stage of the proceedings. Consequently, the State was bound to the recommendation in the plea agreement at the Rule 35 hearing."

Read the opinion at: http://www.isc.idaho.gov/opinions/Lampien%20Opinion.pdf