A South Dakota inmate serving life without parole is asking the South Dakota Supreme Court to overturn his sentence.
Jonathon Klinetobe was charged with masterminding the plot that resulted in the 2015 murder of his former girlfriend in Rapid City. He agreed to plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter and left it up to the judge to determine his sentence.
At oral arguments on Tuesday, Jan. 12, his attorney said the life sentence violates Klinetobe's Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment.
Jonathan Klinetobe is represented by Elizabeth Regalado, a Pennington County Public Defender. She tells justices that Klinetobe admitted to first-degree manslaughter, but received the same sentence he’d have faced for murder.
“So essentially, Mr K bargains for a lesser charge and the state agrees to that lesser charge, and yet when he’s punished, he’s punished as though he is still being convicted of a Class A or B felony.”
Regalado says Judge Heidi Linngren abused judicial discretion by imposing life and did not factor in Klinetobe’s intellectual disability and childhood abuse.
“The court actually violated the legislative intent of the statute and… that reserves the most severe sanctions for the most serious combination of offenders and offenses.”
The state contends that Klinetobe meets those criteria.
Assistant Attorney General Paul Swedlund says Klinetobe, at sentencing, said he was sorry for orchestrating the victim’s death and would accept whatever penalty the judge imposed.
"A defendant who in a ploy for leniency says that he will accept his sentencing with no intent of doing so if the sentence displeases him is thinking on a level… and thinking ahead and planning on a level above intellectual disability.”
Swedlund says the judge heard four days of testimony before sentencing Klinetobe and took into account his marginal IQ, as well as his sociopathy and chances of rehabilitation.
“Though Mr K did not have a significant criminal history, he did have a long history of sociopathic behavior, including preoccupation with violence, death, aggression towards females, fire starting and cruelty to animals.”
Swedlund notes that in the year after the victim’s death, four separate women applied for protections orders against Klinetobe.
Justices will issue an opinion at a later date.
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