State v. Wallette

Citations

• 2025 ND 190

Syllabus

The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, § 11 of the North Dakota Constitution respectively prohibit infliction of \cruel and unusual punishments\ and \cruel or unusual punishments.\ A punishment in a non-capital case that is grossly disproportionate to the offense is cruel and unusual. The disproportionality principle is narrow. It forbids only extreme sentences. Generally, unless there is a statute to the contrary, it is within the trial court's sound discretion whether a sentence should run concurrently with or consecutively to another sentence. The Court will review a claim that a sentence is illegal even when it was not raised below, but a significant distinction exists between claims of error regarding a sentence imposed in a procedurally or factually flawed manner, which can be waived, from an unauthorized sentence that could not lawfully be imposed under any circumstances in the particular case.