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Sampsell v. State2/2/2001
nds that he shouldn't drive. And he was offered a place to stay, a place to sleep and sleep it off. He rejected those offers, which, of course, is a result of the same alcohol that led to the recklessness of his conduct that killed these two people.
[ ] The record is clear that the district court did not believe that Sampsell had willfully committed the homicides charged, but that it was focused on the willfulness of his conduct in driving his vehicle while intoxicated. It is equally clear that in imposing the sentences in this case, the district court took into account the circumstances of the crime and Sampsell's character. The State points out that the maximum punishment provided in Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 6-2-106 is twenty years, and the sentences should not be disturbed in the absence of an abuse of discretion. There was no abuse of discretion by the district court in this case, and we do not afford relief to a defendant unless the proper showing of abuse has been made.
[ ] Sampsell contends that " ntertwined in this review is a proportional review of the actual sentence imposed as a violation of e qual protection and the prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment." In pressing this argument, he relies upon Oakley v. State, 715 P.2d 1374, 1376 (Wyo. 1986). Sampsell asserts that the sentences are unusually severe when compared to the sentences involved in other aggravated vehicular homicide cases. In his appellate brief, he analyzes a number of our prior cases. His point of departure for the proportionality argument is language from Solem v. Helm, 463 U.S. 277, 292, 103 S.Ct. 3001, 3010-11, 77 L.Ed.2d 637 (1983), quoted by this Court in Oakley, 715 P.2d at 1376-77:
"In sum, a court's proportionality analysis under the Eighth Amendment should be guided by objective criteria, including (i) the gravity of the offense and the harshness of the penalty; (ii) the sentences imposed on other criminals in the same jurisdiction; and (iii) the sentences imposed for commission of the same crime in other jurisdictions."
The State, in response, reminds this Court of the constraints we adopted in Oakley, 715 P.2d at 1379:
We will not engage in a lengthy analysis under all three of the Solem criteria, including a consideration of the sentences imposed on similarly situated defendants in this and other jurisdictions, except in cases where the mode of punishment is unusual or where the relative length of sentence to imprisonment is extreme when compared to the gravity of the offense (the first of the Solem criteria). Oakley's sentence does not merit that kind of in-depth Solem analysis, and the Solem opinion does not require that kind of analysis in a case such as this.
We have expanded upon Oakley in subsequent cases, saying:
However, this court has adhered to the rule that we will not undertake a lengthy analysis under all three of the Solem criteria "except in cases where the mode of punishment is unusual or where the relative length of sentence to imprisonment is extreme when compared to the gravity of the offense." Oakley v. State, 715 P.2d 1374, 1379 (Wyo.1986); Smith v. State, 922 P.2d at 849. Our rule is in accord with the approach taken by the United States Supreme Court in
Harmelin v. Michigan, where the court concluded that the Solem proportionality analysis is appropriate only "in the rare case in which a threshold comparison of the crime committed and the sentence imposed leads to an inference of gross disproportionality." [Harmelin] 501 U.S. 957, 1005, 111 S.Ct. 2680, 2707, 115 L.Ed.2d 836 (1991) (Kennedy, J., concurring). Dodge v. State, 951 P.2d 383, 385 (Wyo. 1997). This application of Oakley is still followed
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