PORT ANGELES — A judge will hear arguments this week on whether a man convicted of severely beating another man should get a shorter sentence.
In papers filed last week with Clallam County Superior Court, attorney Karen Unger called for the immediate release of Logan Justice Marquez based on a recent state Supreme Court ruling concerning sentencing guidelines.
Superior Court Judge George Wood will hear arguments on the issue at 9 a.m. Thursday.
Marquez, 26, is serving a total of 4½ years in prison for his Dec. 18, 2003, conviction of second-degree assault while armed with a deadly weapon.
He was originally charged with first-degree assault for beating Brian Morseburg, 27, of Bothell into a coma with a large flashlight in the parking lot of an East Front Street convenience early in the morning of April 19, 2003.
Morseburg, who was visiting family members in Port Angeles, suffered brain injuries.
Marquez’s family members contend he was acting in defense of his girlfriend, who was also at the scene.
A Superior Court jury convicted Marquez on the lesser charge of second-degree assault with the deadly weapon enhancement, and Judge George Wood imposed an exceptionally long prison sentence.
Supreme Court ruling
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year in Blakely v. Washington, a case that originated in Washington state, found that the state’s sentencing system violated a person’s right to trial by jury because it allowed judges to make findings on aggravating factors that were never presented to jurors.
In cases like Marquez’s, the system allowed judges to increase a defendant’s sentence beyond the standard range. The ruling called numerous prisoners’ sentences into question, and Unger last fall sought resentencing for Marquez based on that ruling.
A new opinion issued by the state Supreme Court last week found some defendants’ exceptional sentences unconstitutional and remanded those cases to court for sentencing within the standard range, rather than impaneling a jury to decide.
Based on that ruling and Blakely, Unger contends that Marquez should be released because he has already served the sentence that should have been imposed under the existing sentencing guidelines.