State v. Henderson
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The Supreme Court remanded this matter to the trial court to vacate the trial court's decision granting the State's motion to correct Defendant's unlawful sentence eighteen years after the sentence was entered, holding that the State cannot challenge Defendant's voidable sentence through a postconviction motion for resentencing.
Defendant pleaded guilty to one count of murder with a three-year firearm specification. Defendant should have been sentenced to an indefinite sentence of fifteen years to life for his murder conviction. The trial court, however, sentenced Defendant to a definite sentence. The State later filed a motion for resentencing. The trial court granted the sentence, and the court of appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court reversed the court of appeals' judgment and remanded the matter for the trial court to vacate the sentencing entry and to reinstate Defendant's original sentence, holding (1) sentences based on an error, including sentences in which a court fails to impose a statutorily mandated term, are voidable if the court imposing the sentence has jurisdiction over the case and the defendant; (2) Defendant's sentence was voidable; and (3) the State cannot challenge a voidable sentence through a postconviction motion for resentencing.
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