Skip to main content
DRAFT FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW — NOT FINAL

State v. Sinchak, 229 Conn. App. 38 (2024)

Citation
State v. Sinchak, 229 Conn. App. 38 (2024)
Parent Document
State v. Sinchak, 229 Conn. App. 38 (2024)
Jurisdiction
Connecticut (state)
Effective Date
2024-11-05

Full Text

2,316 chars
poses of appeal ‘‘(1) where the order or action termi-
       nates a separate and distinct proceeding, or (2) where
       the order or action so concludes the rights of the parties
       that further proceedings cannot affect them.’’ Id., 31. By
       contrast, an interlocutory order is not a final judgment
       if it is ‘‘merely a step along the road to final judgment.’’
       (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Hartford Acci-
       dent & Indemnity Co. v. Ace American Reinsurance
       Co., 279 Conn. 220, 226, 901 A.2d 1164 (2006).
         On granting a motion to correct an illegal sentence,
       the ‘‘court possesses the sole authority . . . [to] resen-
       tence a defendant if it is determined that the original
       sentence was illegal.’’ (Internal quotation marks omit-
       ted.) State v. Casiano, 282 Conn. 614, 625, 922 A.2d
       1065 (2007). Our appellate courts have jurisdiction to
       consider an appeal from the granting of a motion to
       correct an illegal sentence after resentencing. See, e.g.,
       State v. Jason B., 320 Conn. 259, 261, 128 A.3d 937
       (2016) (considering defendant’s appeal and state’s cross
       appeal from order partially granting defendant’s motion
       to correct illegal sentence and subsequent resentenc-
       ing). Neither our Supreme Court nor this court has
       addressed, however, whether the state can appeal from
       the granting of a motion to correct an illegal sentence
       before the defendant has been resentenced.
         That is the situation that confronts us in the present
       case, where the trial court only identified a sentencing
       error but did not resentence the defendant. The court
       therefore had not yet determined whether that error
       would have any impact on the defendant’s sentence
       before the state filed this appeal.6
         The state, although recognizing the general rule that
       the final judgment in a criminal case occurs upon the
         6
           It follows that the state—and, for that matter, the defendant—cannot
       know whether it will be aggrieved by the new sentence and, if so, the
       grounds on which the new sentence may be challenged on appeal.
Page 6                   CONNECTICUT LAW JOURNAL                       0, 0