State v. Watson
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Tara L. Watson was charged with three crimes, including unlawful possession of scheduled drugs (cocaine base), refusing to submit to arrest, and violation of condition of release. Watson pleaded guilty to all three charges. The trial court sentenced Watson to a three-year prison term for the drug possession charge, which was the leading charge for sentencing purposes. Watson appealed the sentence, arguing that the trial court abused its discretion by disregarding or misapplying sentencing principles.
The trial court had held a sentencing hearing where the State argued that Watson was not a good candidate for probation due to her history of possession and use, previous violation of conditions of release, and her delivery of a false name and flight from the officer who stopped the vehicle in which she was a passenger. Watson, on the other hand, argued for a probated sentence so that she could focus on addressing her substance use disorder in a highly supervised residential program.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court vacated the sentence and remanded the case for resentencing. The court found that the trial court had erred in its sentencing analysis by relying heavily on its own personal experiences and beliefs about drug use and crime, rather than on an individualized assessment of Watson's circumstances. The court also found that the trial court had failed to adequately address the sentencing goal of eliminating inequalities in sentences and had not given due consideration to a viable rehabilitative treatment option as an alternative to incarceration.
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