Santobello error, misdemeanor assualt and negligent endangerment

DA 07-0668
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA
2008 MT 357
STATE OF MONTANA, v. JOSEPH SMIETANKA,
Joseph Smietanka (Smietanka) appeals from the judgment entered by the Fifth Judicial District Court, Jefferson County on his conviction and sentence for the misdemeanor offenses of assault and negligent endangerment. We reverse and remand for resentencing.
A prosecutor’s violation of a plea agreement is unacceptable, even when made inadvertently in a good faith pursuit of a just outcome. Bartosh, ¶ 19.
¶14 Here, the State concedes that the prosecutor’s recommendation of a 12-month suspended sentence on the negligent endangerment offense violated the plea agreement. We hold, therefore, that the prosecutor breached the plea agreement by recommending imposition of a sentence in excess of that which the prosecutor had agreed to recommend.
¶15 Reversed and remanded to the District Court for resentencing.

Santobello Error

2008 MT 201
STATE OF MONTANA,v.
DUSTIN DUMONT RAHN,
The dispositive issue is whether the District Court abused its discretion in ruling the State of Montana did not breach the plea agreement.
Allowing the State to make a “miscarriage of justice” argument on remand via Sullivan’s letter and testimony—the very evidence by which it breached the plea agreement—would itself be a miscarriage of justice, because it would effectively deny Rahn any remedy for the State’s breach.
Reversed and remanded for resentencing by a different judge consistent with this opinion.