Marshall Green was convicted by a jury of two counts of armed robbery and sentenced to consecutive fifteen-year terms on each count in July of 1996. His original appeal to this Court challenged only the sufficiency of the evidence, and we affirmed his conviction in 231 Ga. App. 864 501 SE2d 47 1998. In November of 2002 and March of 2003, he filed motions seeking to correct his sentence on the grounds that it was void. The trial court denied Green’s motions and this pro se appeal followed.1 1. Green first contends that his sentence was illegal because the trial court had an impermissible sentencing policy which precluded a defendant convicted of armed robbery from requesting first offender treatment. Green argues the trial court’s policy is shown by the following statement the trial court made when his sentence was imposed: “It would probably normally be my inclination to let you hold two life sentences. But in view of the fact that the two co-defendants have been sentenced to fifteen years each on these counts. I’ll sentence you each to fifteen years on Count One and fifteen years on Count Two.”
We disagree that trial court’s statement concerning what would “probably normally be his inclination” indicates that the trial court had adopted an inflexible and impermissible sentencing formula or that the trial court had a policy refusing to consider first offender treatment for certain crimes. “Refusal to consider first offender treatment as part of a sentencing formula or policy by automatic denial constitutes an abuse of discretion and constitutes reversible error. Cit. However, there must be a clear statement in the record that constitutes either a general refusal to consider such treatment or an erroneous expression of belief that the law does not permit the exercise of such discretion.” Camaron v. State , 246 Ga. App. 80, 82 2 539 SE2d 577 2000. Compare Wilcox v. State , 257 Ga. App. 519, 520 571 SE2d 512 2002 trial court made unequivocal statements that it would not give first offender treatment on an armed robbery charge.
