State V. Buchhold: The South Dakota Supreme Court Fails to Recognize a de Facto Life Sentence As the Functional Equivalent of a Life Sentence when Determining Gross Disproportionality‪.‬

I. INTRODUCTION In State v. Buchhold, (1) the South Dakota Supreme Court missed an opportunity to reinforce the importance of critical pre-sentencing considerations. The court had created a line of cases explaining the need to analyze certain factors before sentencing a defendant to life in prison because of the inherent significance of a life sentence. (2) However, in Buchhold, the court failed to recognize that a de facto (3) life sentence should require the same analysis by a sentencing court as a de jure (4) life sentence. (5)