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148 Vt. 14

527 A.2d 1150

State v. LaPine

Supreme Court of Vermont

Decided March 6, 1987

Supreme Court of Vermont · decided 1987-03-06

Relies on State v. Therrien

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1987-03-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently October 2022

16 state decisions

12019871990200020102020decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Per Curiam.

¶1 Two years after sentencing for a conviction for sexual assault defendant petitioned for reconsideration of sentence under 13 V.S.A. § 7042, and his petition was denied. We affirm.

¶2 Central to defendant’s case is his assertion of changed circumstances, notably his completion of the sexual offender program, visits to a psychiatrist, and participation in work release. The State responds that defendant’s petition in effect seeks to use 13 V.S.A. § 7042 as an alternative to a parole hearing, and that seems to be so. The purpose of reconsideration under § 7042 “is to permit the trial judge to reconsider the sentencing decision absent the heat of trial pressures and in calm reflection . . . .” *15 State v. Therrien, 140 Vt. 625, 627, 442 A.2d 1299, 1301 (1982). Implicit in Therrien and the statute itself is the assumption that under consideration will be the circumstances and factors present at the time of the original sentencing, rather than defendant’s conduct and behavior since sentencing. Sentence reconsideration and the parole process are two entirely different functions, and the trial court was correct to maintain the distinction.

¶3 Affirmed.

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