Court refuses to shorten rapist's term

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down a convicted rapist's plea to reduce his prison sentence, without deciding whether the court's three-year-old ruling on prison sentences applies to older cases.

The justices said in an unsigned opinion that Lonnie Lee Burton's appeal had procedural problems that should have prevented it from being heard in the first place.

Burton had asked the court to cut his 46-year prison term by 21 years. The sentence was imposed by a judge in Washington state in 1998, but Burton's lawyer said the 2004 ruling limiting judges' discretion in handing out prison time should apply to Burton's case.

Washington and 18 other states disagreed.

Tuesday's court action was unusual only in that the justices accepted Burton's case in June and heard argument in November before determining that lower courts had been wrong to consider the merits of Burton's appeal. Even so, those courts had ruled against him.

The court has other cases pending that it could use to decide whether inmates can reopen challenges to prison sentences based on its ruling in Blakely v. Washington. In the 2004 decision, the court said judges, acting alone, could not impose longer prison terms based on certain aggravating factors. Those factors must first be proved to a jury.