Where an offender has a chronic psychotic disorder causally connected to the offending, a sentencing judge errs by treating denunciation, just punishment and protection of the community as 'the principal sentencing purposes'. Under the Verdins principles, denunciation and just punishment must be treated as of lesser importance. Community protection may be better served by a longer parole period facilitating supervised treatment rather than a longer head sentence.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 9 later cases that cite this judgment.