A failed Drug Court referral is relevant to remorse and rehabilitation prospects, and potentially to special circumstances, but disappointment or inconvenience arising from the failed referral cannot be relied upon in mitigation of sentence. The strength of the prosecution case should not reduce the utilitarian value of a guilty plea, but failure to quantify the discount is not necessarily error if it is clear the plea was taken into account. Commission of an offence while on parole is a matter of considerable aggravation that may compensate for any deficiency in the sentencing judge's treatment of other matters.
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