Pierre v. State

In this opinion, we discuss the law surrounding the concept known as “vindictive sentencing.”1 The state charged Luckner Pierre with two counts of sexual battery on a person twelve or older but less than eighteen by a person in a position of familial or custodial authority,2 and offered him seventeen years imprisonment in exchange for a guilty plea. Pierre ultimately rejected the offer, exercised his right to trial, and was found guilty. The trial court then imposed two twenty-five-year sentences, concurrent with each other, which Pierre claims amounts to a vindictive sentence. Because the…