State v. Ekern

[¶ 1.] An attorney with the Pennington County Public Defender once again claims a sentence violates the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment. 1 Here, the claim is that a two year penitentiary sentence for third offense felony DUI is constitutionally infirm. This suggestion “borders on the bizarre.” State v. Winchester, 438 N.W.2d 555, 556 (S.D. 1989).

[¶ 2.] Ekern is a chronic alcoholic and has been arrested over thirty times for drug and alcohol related offenses. She has eight lifetime DUI arrests, and, without counting the felony DUI in this ease, two felony DUIs in…