Vermont v. Herring

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Defendant Jody Herring, who pleaded guilty to murdering her cousins Rhonda and Regina Herring, her aunt Julie Falzarano, and social worker Lara Sobel, challenged her sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole for Lara Sobel’s murder. She argued the trial court abused its discretion in holding her history of trauma and resulting anxiety disorder against her when it should have viewed them as mitigating factors, and in basing its decision on a mistaken understanding that, if given an indeterminate sentence, she might be paroled without having rehabilitated. Finding no reversible error, the Vermont Supreme Court affirmed. View "Vermont v. Herring" on Justia Law