State v. Johnson

| MURRAY, J.,

dissents in part and assigns reasons.

Although I agree that Mr. Johnson’s conviction should be affirmed, I dissent *1235from the affirmation of the trial court’s departure from the minimum sentence in this case. A downward departure from the minimum sentence under the Habitual Offender Law should occur only in rare cases. State v. Warren, 99-0557, p. 8 (La.App.4 Cir. 9/8/99), 742 So.2d 722, 727. In my opinion, this is not such a case.

At sentencing, the trial court described Mr. Johnson as an “obviously incorrigible habitual offender” who had at least five convictions for distributing…