State v. Peter

OPINION

ROSS, Judge.

Liberia-born Manlear Peter broke into and stole cash and a computer from the *128Habitat for Humanity facility in Moorhead. Aware that Peter faced deportation if he received the presumptive guidelines sentence for the burglary, the district court departed downward and imposed a lighter sentence, expressly to save Peter from federal deportation. The state appeals the sentence, urging us to hold that the district court abused its discretion by basing the downward durational departure on Peter’s potential deportation and on other offender-specific circumstances. Because potential…