On May 11, 1972, an amended information was filed in the circuit court for La Crosse county, charging him with 16 counts of burglary committed in La Crosse and six other counties — Trempealeau, Jackson, Vernon, Dodge, Jefferson, and Monroe. Four days later the defendant entered a plea of guilty to these charges. Immediately following that plea a hearing was held at which Dr. Gary Palmer testified; he was a licensed clinical psychologist and had previously examined the defendant; he testified that he felt defendant would not be rehabilitated in a prison environment. Dr. Palmer also testified that prison would either cause defendant to develop acute psychosis or mold his character into a criminal pattern via his association with other inmates.
The trial court had also ordered a presentence investigation and report. This report recommended defendant be incarcerated as "an object lesson [to] teach this young man that repeated deviant and criminal activity cannot be tolerated in the free community." Also before the court in its sentencing deliberations was a letter from Bradley E. Mason, a rehabilitation counselor with the Department of Health and Social Services (defendant had been previously convicted of burglary in January, 1971, and had been placed on probation for this incident). Mr. Mason urged the trial court to place defendant on probation "contingent upon the weekly visits to a psychiatric consultant for indepth counseling and treatment."
On the same day of the postplea hearing, May 15, 1972, the trial court convicted the defendant of all 16 counts of burglary and sentenced him to an indeterminate term of not more than five years on each of the first eight counts. Each of these terms was ordered to run concurrently with each other. The defendant was also sentenced to indeterminate terms of not more than five years on each of the latter eight counts. These sentences were also ordered to run concurrently. The sentence imposed for count nine was ordered to run consecutively to the sentence imposed for count one. The Wisconsin State Reformatory was designated as reception center.
After the defendant had been confined for some time at the Wisconsin State Reformatory, on July 10, 1972, the trial court entered an order returning the defendant to La Crosse county. The trial court's order recited that it had decided to review the defendant's sentence on its own motion. A hearing was then held on July 18, 1972, before the sentencing court. At this hearing the defendant testified he had been assigned to the auto body shop at the reformatory and was hopeful of obtaining similar employment upon his release from prison. The record also indicates that the trial court requested and received an evaluation of defendant's conduct while at the reformatory. This letter (dated July 12, 1972) is signed by Donald A. Cole, a social worker assigned to defendant's case. Mr. Cole concluded that he did not feel he could fairly determine whether defendant had learned a lesson from his incarceration at the reformatory. Cole did note, however, that incarceration would "perhaps" benefit the defendant.
At this hearing the trial court stated for the record that it had originally sentenced the defendant with the mental reservation to call him back within ninety days and reduce his sentence. The court stated:
"The court at the time the sentence was imposed on this young man phrased the sentence frankly with the idea of review within ninety days, in the court's mind. I find myself as you well know I am leaving on the 23d for the National College so that the ninety day period would have elapsed while I was gone and I would have preferred to have allowed him to remain approximately another thirty days but the court feels fairly certain that within the ninety days its discretion to bring him back is unquestioned. After that there may be some question and rather than get into that jurisdictional problem I have decided to do it in this manner'. This was known only to my court reporter and myself because on the same day that the sentence was pronounced my calendar was so marked that I was calling this young man back. I would be less than human to tell you that for a two day period following the Noble trial he lost that and then on further reflection I came to the conclusion that I should not deviate from my original plan. I thought that this might be a situation with a young man who once he hears the prison gates clank behind him and he knows that he is not there for only nine months or one year but there with two consecutive sentences that it would not take him very long to learn this, that it would be at least two and a half years before he is out of there. I did not tell him that I was going to bring him back for review because it was the court's feeling that the sentence which was imposed was a stiff sentence. The court is well aware of that. On the other hand I well recognize the exposure that he had on these counts and it was not a sentence which would have bothered my conscience had I decided at some point to leave him at Green Bay and should I decide to leave it, it will not bother my conscience, but I am well aware of the forces that are at work in our society today in terms of what is proper methods of handling these people. We know we haven't been successful in sometimes in some areas and I am trying to weigh the factors which are involved and which have got to be considered here, but here is also a young man that is involved and I think that he well realizes that he has committed these crimes but the court is also concerned as to you know, what is this young man going to be ten years from now. You have seen plenty of examples of these young people who can't stay out of prison and we have seen some who made a good adjustment and became good citizens and even that relatively — strangely in a short period on the bench I can recall now four jurors who in my panels who have come to me and who have asked to be excused because they knew that on voire dire examination they were under oath and they were bound to tell the truth and these are people who had — four men who had criminal sentences and they have lived them down and I think that we consider them good successful people and I don't mean successfully financially but making their way and raising a family and rather than having to reveal it on voire dire they have asked to be excused. I think in our society at least these men who had gone through this, at least I think have done well and they have been excellent people since that time."
At the conclusion of this hearing the trial court amended its May 15, 1972, judgment of conviction and sentencing as follows:
"It Is Adjudged that the defendant is convicted as found guilty, and is hereby committed to the Wisconsin State Prisons for an indeterminate term of not more than three years on counts numbered 1 through 8 inclusive, and on counts numbered 9 through 16, inclusive.
"The sentence for counts #2 through #8 inclusive are to be concurrent with the sentence in count
"The sentence on counts #10 through #16 are to be concurrent with the sentence of count #9.
"The sentence for count #9 shall run consecutively with that imposed for count #1."
The trial court stayed the execution of sentence and placed defendant on probation. As conditions of probation the defendant was ordered to make restitution in the amount of $2,426.11 plus costs and to refrain from taking drugs or participating in drug traffic. The defendant was further ordered to make himself amenable to the guidance and treatment of Dr. Palmer and consult with his probation officer.
The state of Wisconsin appeals from this amended judgment of conviction and sentencing.
WILKIE, J.
One issue is presented by this appeal: May a trial court validly sentence an individual to a term of one year or more in the state reformatory with the intention (at the time of sentencing) of bringing such individual two months thereafter before the court in order to modify the initial sentence, stay such sentence, and grant probation?
The trial court's original sentence here was invalid because it did not conform to the requirements of sec. 973.02, Stats. This section provides:
"973.02 Place of imprisonment when none expressed. When a statute authorizes imprisonment for its violation but does not prescribe the place of imprisonment, 1) a sentence of less than one year shall be to the county jail, 2) a sentence of more than one year shall be to the Wisconsin state prisons and the minimum under the indeterminate sentence law shall be one year, and 3) a sentence of one year may be to either the Wisconsin state prisons or the county jail. But in any proper case sentence and commitment may nevertheless be to the Wisconsin home for women, the department or any house of correction or other institution as provided by law."
While the trial court sentenced the defendant to several terms, both concurrent and consecutive, in the state prison (the Wisconsin State Reformatory), it did so with the then present intention that the defendant would serve no more than ninety days of the sentence in the Wisconsin state prisons. The trial court stated for the record during the hearing at which the sentence was amended (July 18, 1972), that it had intended to review that sentence within those ninety days. This was a circumvention of sec. 973.02, Stats. The legislature has not spelled out specific statutory authority for the procedure employed by the trial court, permitting the sentencing of a convicted defendant on a "trial-run" basis to the Wisconsin state prisons with the intention, not communicated at the time to the defense or the state, that the defendant would be ordered back for a sentence review within ninety days from the date of the original sentence.
Although, in entering its second and amended sentence in which the court reduced the underlying sentences from five to three years and then stayed the sentence and awarded probation, the trial court was reviewing the first sentence in the light of the information developed at the proceedings on July 18th; it, of course, was not acting with a view to correcting the original sentence which was considered invalid. The trial court obviously considered the first sentence valid and was merely reviewing it to determine whether some modification was warranted.
The new sentence is entirely valid. This court has previously approved a trial court's action in entering a sentence that rectified a previous void sentence. In State ex rel. Copas v. Burke this court approved the subsequent action of a trial court in committing a sex offender to the sex deviate facility upon the revocation of the previously imposed probation. The trial court had previously imposed a punitive sentence even though specialized treatment had been recommended by the department.
State ex rel. Copas v. Burke (1965), 28 Wis.2d 188, 136 N.W.2d 778.
This is precisely the situation in the present case and the new sentence in every respect is an effective correction of a previous invalid sentence.
The state contends that the trial court entered its amended sentence without a showing that the initial sentence was bottomed upon either a lack of pertinent information or misinformation. There is no such requirement at the present time as a jurisdictional prerequisite for the modification of a sentence by a trial court. The present rule as stated in Hayes v. State is "that a trial court may exercise its inherent power to change and modify its judgments after the execution of the sentence has commenced and the term ended." Although the time limit of ninety days within which a motion to modify a sentence was approved in Hayes, this time limit has been subsequently determined to be "regulatory" rather than "jurisdictional" thus permitting sentence modification in certain cases after the expiration of ninety days.
(1970), 46 Wis.2d 93, 101, 175 N.W.2d 625.
Lange v. State (1972), 54 Wis.2d 569, 573, 196 N.W.2d 680; State ex rel. Warren v. County Court (1972), 54 Wis.2d 613, 617, 197 N.W.2d 1.
While in Hayes this court did not delineate precise guidelines for exercise of the broad discretionary power of modifying a sentence, it did imply their existence:
". . . Within reasonable limits we think an unjust sentence should be corrected by the trial court." (Emphasis added.)
Hayes v. State, supra, footnote 2, at page 105.
In Hayes this court further suggested the inherent power of the court to modify a previously imposed sentence "must be exercised within the limits of sound sentencing discretion." It was also held the reasons for such modification should be elaborated upon by the resentencing court. While both Hayes and Mattice v. State, also cited by appellant, involved the modification of sentences which had been imposed without the trial court's knowledge of the defendants' true criminal records, neither case mandates such misinformation or lack of information as a jurisdictional prerequisite to subsequent sentence reconsideration and modification.
Id. at page 106.
(1971), 50 Wis.2d 380, 184 N.W.2d 94.
The recent decision of this court in State ex rel. Warren v. County Court does not support the state's jurisdictional contention that the trial court has no authority to modify a previously imposed sentence unless the original sentence was based on misinformation or some lack of information.
Supra, footnote 3.
While we have previously indicated that the trial court's discretionary power to modify a previously imposed sentence is not unfettered, we deem it advisable to fashion guidelines for the guidance of trial courts in the performance of their discretionary functions of reviewing and modifying sentences. With this in mind, we adopt that portion of the American Bar Association's Standards Relating to Sentencing Alternatives and Procedures, spelled out under sec. 6.1 (a) as follows:
"6.1 Authority to reduce: general.
"(a) It may be appropriate to authorize the sentencing court to reduce or modify a sentence within a specified time after its imposition or the final resolution of an appeal if new factors bearing on the sentence are made known. . . ."
American Bar Association, Standards Relating to Sentencing Alternatives and Procedures, Part VI, sec. 6.1 (approved draft, 1968).
It is inappropriate for a sentencing court to make a change in an imposed sentence unless new factors are made known. The commentary to the ABA Standards cites District Attorney for the Northern District v. Superior Court, which states:
American Bar Association, Standards Relating to Sentencing Alternatives and Procedures (tentative draft, 1967), Commentary, Part VI, sec. 6.1, pp. 278, 279.
(1961), 342 Mass. 119, 128, 172 N.E.2d 245.
". . . Occasions inevitably will occur where a conscientious judge, after reflection or upon receipt of new probation reports or other information, will feel that he has been too harsh or has failed to give due weight to mitigating factors which properly he should have taken into account. In such cases the interests of justice and sound judicial administration will be served by permitting the trial judge to reduce the sentence within a reasonable time."
We think the Massachusetts court goes too far. A trial court should not reduce a sentence on "reflection" alone or simply because it has thought the matter over and has second thoughts. It must base its modification on "new factors" brought to its attention.
Nothing said here varies the general rule that this court may review an allegedly excessive sentence or a sentence which is claimed to have been imposed in a manner indicating an abuse of discretion. However, in view of our statement "It is inappropriate for a sentencing court to make a change in an imposed sentence unless new factors are made known," the requirement that a motion be made to the trial court to correct a sentence deemed excessive or imposed with an abuse of discretion is unnecessary to preserve such question for review by this court unless new factors are, in fact, present which the trial court should consider as indicated herein.
Tatum v. State (1971), 51 Wis.2d 554, 556, 187 N.W.2d 137; Farley v. State (1971), 50 Wis.2d 113, 115, 183 N.W.2d 33.
By the Court. — Judgment affirmed.