State v. Barrett

DURRANT, Justice:

¶ 1 To resolve these consolidated petitions for extraordinary relief, we must determine whether a district court’s reduction, for sentencing purposes, of a first degree felony with a gang enhancement 1 to a second degree felony without an enhancement constitutes an impermissible two-degree reduction of the charged offense. If so, we must determine whether it is appropriate to utilize our extraordinary writ powers to nullify such a reduction. We conclude that a district court’s removal of a gang enhancement is, in effect, a one-degree reduction of the charged offense.…