State of Tennessee, Appellant v. Leonard Moss, Defendant-Appellee

Summary

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that the Sentencing Reform Act of 1982 contains no presumptive sentencing policy: neither the trial court's midpoint-starting approach nor the Court of Criminal Appeals' minimum-as-starting-point reading reflects the Act, which instead requires case-by-case exercise of statutorily guided discretion. Construing the Act's provisions in pari materia, the court concluded that T.C.A. § 40-35-103(4)'s 'least severe measure' directive cannot be isolated from provisions permitting justified disparity, and that mitigating and enhancement factors carry no fixed values. Conducting its own de novo review, the court found confinement necessary to avoid deprecating the seriousness of Moss's reckless-driving murder and for general deterrence, weighed one enhancement factor against several mitigating factors, and imposed a fifteen-year sentence as a Range I standard offender, reversing the intermediate court.