Collins v. State

By my reading, the lead opinion establishes two new mitigating factors based on the legislative history of the 2006 sentencing legislation-mitigating factors that apply only to sex offenses. In my opinion, these mitigating factors are not supported by this legislative history.

The first factor is based on the court's conclusion that the legislature believed that "the typical sexual offender is a repeat offender." This conclusion is apparently based on legislative findings regarding two studies reporting polygraph interviews with convicted sex offenders.1 Based on this conclusion, *798the lead…