DIMOND, Senior Justice. OPINION. In a drunken rage, Mickey Abraham beat his wife to death. He entered a plea of nolo contendere to the charge of manslaughter and was sentenced to five years imprisonment with four years suspended. The court ordered that Abraham was to be considered ineligible for parole during the one-year period of imprisonment. During the four-year period of suspended sentence, he was placed on probation, subject to certain conditions, one of which was that he totally refrain from consuming alcoholic beverages. The state appealed to this court on the basis that the sentence was too lenient. 1 We agreed with the state's contention, stating that the superior court, in sentencing Abraham, had accorded insufficient weight to the sentencing goals of deterrence of the offender and of other members of the community who might possess similar criminal tendencies, and reaffirmation of societal norms. We held that a minimal protection of society required that Abraham be given a more substantial sentence, and that a sentence of 1-year confinement for the taking of a human life in a most brutal manner does not serve to effectuate the goals of deterrence and respect for the laws of Alaska. 2
