Carson v. State

The evidence supports Carson’s conviction, but I respectfully dissent from the majority’s affirmance of Carson’s mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole for his perpetration of two armed robberies. Although it is certainly within the province of the legislature to provide for severe mandatory sentences, we should not sanction their imposition unless the defendant has been afforded all of the rights and protections the law extends. Under the Sixth Amendment guarantee of effective assistance of counsel, Carson had a right to be told that if he rejected a plea…