x. ORIGINAL 08/30/2022

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA Case Number: OP 22-0446

OP 22-0446

STEPHEN W. SEESE, AUG 3 0 2022 Bovven Greenwood Clan< of Supreme Court State of Montana Petitioner, v. ORDER JAMES SALMONSEN, Warden, and DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Respondents.

Stephen W. Seese has filed a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus, arguing that as an accessory, his sentence is longer than the law allows. He states that his forty-year prison sentence for negligent homicide and as a persistant felony offender is too long when it should be twenty years. Seese also requests to be placed elsewhere, besides the Montana State Prison, because the facility "offer[s] little mental health help here and" rnonths go by before one rnay see a professional.

This Court is familiar with Seese's background. In 2016, the State of Montana charged Seese with deliberate hornicide in the Lake County District Court. Seese pleaded guilty to negligent hornicide (accountability), and the District Court designated Seese as a persistent felony offender (PFO), sentencing him to the Montana State Prison for forty years with no time suspended. He did not appeal. Seese, however, filed an application for sentence review. The Sentence Review Division of the Montana Supreme Court affirmed Seese's sentence on May 4, 2017. Seese previously sought habeas corpus relief with this Court that we denied. See Seese v. Cmdr. 0 'Fallon, No. OP 17-0683, Order (Mont. Dec. 5, 2017) (Seese 1).

Seese does not have an illegal sentence. "The District Court imposed one sentence for the PFO designation and not for the offense." Seese I, at 1. We stated before: We previously have held "that sentences irnposed based on an offender's status as a persistent felony offender replace the sentence for the underlying felony." State v. Gunderson, 2010 MT 166, ¶ 54, 357 Mont. 142, 237 P.3d 74 (emphasis in original). While a forty-year prison sentence may be lengthy, Seese could have received a longer sentence. With a PFO designation, the District Court rnay irnpose a prison sentence of up to 100 years, pursuant to § 46-18-502(1), MCA.

Seese I, at 1-2. The District Court determined that, pursuant to § 45-2-301, MCA, Seese was liable by accountability. The court did not use the terrn of accessory.

This Court cannot place offenders, only the Departrnent of Corrections has that authority. Section 46-23-1004, MCA.

Seese has not dernonstrated illegal incarceration. Section 46-22-101(1), MCA. His sentence is not longer than the law allows. Therefore, IT IS ORDERED that Seese's Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus is DENIED and DISMISSED.

The Clerk is directed to provide a copy of this Order to counsel of record and to Stephen W. Seese personally.

DATED this 3 6 day of August, 2022.

(94 fir JUL