The
SD Supreme Court handed down one decision this morning, holding, inter alia:
- Double life sentence upheld, following guilty pleas
Summary
follows:
STATE
v. LANPHER, JR., 2024 S.D. 26: This situation in this case is succinctly described
in the opening paragraph of the opinion:
[¶1.] James Joseph Lanpher,
Jr. pled guilty to two counts of aggravated assault against a law enforcement
officer and admitted to a part II habitual offender information. The charges
arose out of an extremely dangerous high-speed chase during which Lanpher
repeatedly fired weapons at pursuing officers. The circuit court sentenced
Lanpher to serve two concurrent life sentences to run consecutively to
sentences he was already serving for other offenses. Lanpher appeals, claiming
his sentence was cruel and unusual in violation of the Eighth Amendment and was
an abuse of the circuit court’s discretion. We affirm.
This
decision is unanimous with opinion authored by Justice Kern.
This
decision may be accessed at
http://ujs.sd.gov/Supreme_Court/opinions.aspx .
