State v. Bentley
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The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed Defendant's sentence of forty years' imprisonment imposed in connection with his guilty plea to murder, holding that the trial court did not misapply any principle or abuse its discretion in its sentencing analysis or in its exercise of its sentencing power.
Defendant pleaded guilty of intentional or knowing murder. Based on its findings and consideration of sentences imposed in comparable cases, the trial court set the basic sentence at fifty to fifty-five years' imprisonment. After weighing the aggravating and mitigating factors, the court set the final sentence of forty years' imprisonment. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the sentence, holding that although the court was not required to consider comparable cases, the court correctly applied sentencing principles at both steps of the sentencing analysis.
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