Statutorily Mandated Sentences: An Exception to G.S. 15A-1335

G.S. 15A-1335 provides that when a conviction or sentence imposed in superior court has been set aside on direct review or collateral attack, the court may not impose a new sentence for the same offense, or for a different offense based on the same conduct, that is more severe than the prior sentence less the portion of the prior sentence previously served. I’ve previously written about a recent change to the statute and about when a sentence is “more severe.” In this post I’ll focus on an exception to the statute: The statutorily mandated sentence. The case law holds that the statute doesn’t apply when the higher sentence is statutorily mandated. State v. Williams, 74 N.C. App. 728 (1985) (in this armed robbery case, after a new trial was ordered and the defendant again was convicted, the trial judge imposed a 14-year sentence, two years more than the original sentence; G.S. 15A-1335 did not apply because the statute then in effect provided that armed robbery had a mandatory minimum of at least 14 years; thus, the trial judge had no discretion to impose a sentence less than 14 years); State v. Kirkpatrick, 89 N.C. App. 353 (1988) (after being convicted of felonious possession of stolen property and of having achieved habitual felon status, the trial court sentenced the defendant to three years for possession and to 15 years for being a habitual felon; after the appellate court held that the trial court erred by separately sentencing the defendant for being a [...]