State v. Pennington

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

*348COLEMAN, J.

The important issues raised in this appeal are whether life imprisonment is the presumptive extended term requiring twenty-five years of parole ineligibility for a persistent offender convicted of first-degree kidnapping and whether a rejected plea offer may be considered by an appellate court when determining the excessiveness of sentences. The Appellate Division did not address the first issue and the panel was divided over the second. We hold that life imprisonment is the presumptive extended term for first-degree kidnapping for a…