People v. Holmquist

5 A.D.3d 1041, 773 N.Y.S.2d 682

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: March 19, 2004
• Status: Published

Opinion

Appeal from a judgment of the Cayuga County Court (Peter E. Corning, J.), rendered March 19, 2003. The judgment convicted defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of murder in the second degree.

It is hereby ordered that the judgment so appealed from be and the same hereby is unanimously affirmed.

Memorandum: On appeal from a judgment convicting him upon his plea of guilty of murder in the second degree (Penal Law § 125.25 [3]), defendant contends that the sentence of an indeterminate term of incarceration of 25 years to life constitutes cruel and unusual punishment as applied to him and is unduly harsh and severe. We disagree. Although the Court of Appeals in People v Broadie (37 NY2d 100, 111 [1975], cert denied 423 US 950 [1975]) recognized that a sentence that is “grossly disproportionate to the crime” may be considered cruel and unusual punishment, this is not one of the rare cases envisaged by Broadie (see People v Thompson, 83 NY2d 477, 484 [1994]). We further reject defendant’s contention that the bargained-for sentence on the charge as reduced from murder in the first degree (Penal Law § 125.27 [1] [a] [vii]) is unduly harsh or severe. Present—Green, J.P., Fine, Scudder, Gorski and Hayes, JJ.