Com. v. Johnson

• Decision Date: 26 February 2009
• Docket Number: No. 293 WDA 2008.,293 WDA 2008.
• Citation: 967 A.2d 1001,2009 PA Super 36
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Eric Richard JOHNSON, Appellant.
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

967 A.2d 1001

2009 PA Super 36

COMMONWEALTH of Pennsylvania, Appellee v. Eric Richard JOHNSON, Appellant.

No. 293 WDA 2008.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted November 10, 2008.

Filed February 26, 2009.

Brian Gorman, Washington, for appellant.

Benjamin J. Ciocco, Assistant District Attorney Washington, for Commonwealth appellee.

BEFORE: BOWES, FREEDBERG, and FITZGERALD^*, JJ.

OPINION BY FREEDBERG, J.:

¶ 1 This is an appeal from the judgment of sentence entered in the Court of Common Pleas for Washington County after a hearing in which Eric Richard Johnson ("Appellant") was found to be in violation of his probation. We vacate the sentence and remand to the trial court for resentencing in accordance with the reasoning set forth below.

¶ 2 The facts are not in dispute. On July 27, 2006, Appellant was charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance (two counts), Possession with Intent to Deliver a Controlled Substance (two counts) and Dealing in Proceeds of Unlawful Activities. After a preliminary hearing, all charges were held over for court. Subsequently, Appellant missed a scheduled court appearance. He was arrested on a bench warrant and incarcerated. Appellant did not post bail and, therefore, remained incarcerated until October 11, 2007. On that date, Appellant pleaded guilty to one felony count of Possession with Intent to Deliver a Controlled Substance. The trial court sentenced him to twenty-three months probation including participation in a drug treatment program. Appellant was released the following day.

¶ 3 On November 8, 2007, pursuant to a probation detainer, Appellant was incarcerated for missing curfew in violation of the terms of his drug treatment program. On January 10, 2008, the trial court revoked his probation and resentenced him to a period of incarceration of not less than fifteen months to no more than thirty months, to be served in a state correctional facility. After specific request by Appellant's counsel, the trial court refused to award any credit for time served.

¶ 4 The sole question Appellant raises on appeal¹ is whether the trial court erred or abused its discretion in denying Appellant's motion at resentencing for credit for time served for those periods of time he spent incarcerated prior to conviction, from June 21, 2007 to October 12, 2007, and pursuant to the probation detainer, from November 8, 2007 to January 9, 2008. We find that Appellant is entitled to credit for the time served.

¶ 5 "The review in an appeal from judgment of sentence which has been imposed following revocation of probation is limited to the validity of the revocation proceedings and the legality of the final judgment of sentence." Commonwealth v. Beasley, 391 Pa.Super. 287, 570 A.2d 1336, 1337 (1990) (internal quotations omitted), citing Commonwealth v. Gilmore, 465 Pa. 202, 348 A.2d 425, 427 (1975). A challenge to the trial court's failure to award credit for time served prior to sentencing involves the legality of a sentence. Commonwealth v. Menezes, 871 A.2d 204, 207 (Pa.Super.2005), citing Commonwealth v. Hollawell, 413 Pa.Super. 42, 604 A.2d 723 (1992).

¶ 6 It is well established that there is no constitutional right to credit for time served prior to trial or sentence. Martin v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, 576 Pa. 588, 840 A.2d 299, 304 (2004), citing Greenholtz v. Inmates of Nebraska Penal & Correctional Complex, 442 U.S. 1, 7, 99 S.Ct. 2100, 60 L.Ed.2d 668 (1979). Statutes which afford pre-sentence confinement credit are founded upon the recognition that "an indigent offender, unable to furnish bail, should serve no more and no less time in confinement than an otherwise identically situated offender who succeeds in furnishing bail." Martin, 840 A.2d at 304.²

¶ 7 In Pennsylvania, our legislature has codified pre-sentence confinement credit in the following manner:

After reviewing the information submitted under section 9737 (relating to report of outstanding charges and sentences) the court shall give credit as follows:

(1) Credit against the maximum term and any minimum term shall be given to the defendant for all time spent in custody as a result of the criminal charge for which a prison sentence is imposed or as a result of the conduct on which such a charge is based. Credit shall include credit for time spent in custody prior to trial, during trial, pending sentence, and pending the resolution of an appeal.

(2) Credit against the maximum term and any minimum term shall be given to the defendant for all time spent in custody under a prior sentence if he is later reprosecuted and resentenced for the same offense or for another offense based on the same act or acts. This shall include credit in accordance with paragraph (1) of this section for all time spent in custody as a result of both the original charge and any subsequent charge for the same offense or for another offense based on the same act or acts.

(3) If the defendant is serving multiple sentences, and if one of the sentences is set aside as the result of direct or collateral attack, credit against the maximum and any minimum term of the remaining sentences shall be given for all time served in relation to the sentence set aside since the commission of the offenses on which the sentences were based.

(4) If the defendant is arrested on one charge and later prosecuted on another charge growing out of an act or acts that occurred prior to his arrest, credit against the maximum term and any minimum term of any sentence resulting from such prosecution shall be given for all time spent in custody under the former charge that has not been credited against another sentence.

42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9760.

¶ 8 Here, Appellant was originally sentenced to a period of probation contingent upon his completion of a drug treatment program. Section 9760 does not specifically address Appellant's situation, and there is no prior case in Pennsylvania directly on point. Therefore, such case law as it exists provides limited guidance. See, e.g., McCray v. Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections, 582 Pa. 440, 872 A.2d 1127 (2005) (denying appellant double credit for time served in the context of a mandamus action)³; Commonwealth v. Yakell, 876 A.2d 1040 (Pa.Super.2005) (suggesting that credit for time served is left to the clearly stated discretion of the trial court); Commonwealth v. Smith, 853 A.2d 1020 (Pa.Super.2004) (holding that the trial court must award credit for time served, when a defendant is held on both a probation detainer and new charges, to either the original sentence or to a new sentence imposed pursuant to the new charges); Commonwealth v. Bowser, 783 A.2d 348 (Pa.Super.2001) (declining to award double credit for time served where a defendant previously received credit towards incarceration in a split sentence, and citing but failing to discuss the impact of Section 9760); Commonwealth v. Williams, 443 Pa.Super. 479, 662 A.2d 658 (1995) (relying upon Section 9760(1) and holding that the trial court must credit time served if a sentence imposed following revocation of probation would otherwise exceed the maximum sentence allowed by law); Commonwealth v. Hollawell, 413 Pa.Super. 42, 604 A.2d 723 (1992) (holding that credit awarded to one set of charges cannot be transferred to another).

¶ 9 Appellant contends that pursuant to Section 9760(2) the sentencing court must afford him credit; to hold otherwise would limit the effect of the statute to the constitutionally prohibited scenario in which a defendant is subjected to double jeopardy. See Brief for Appellant, p. 9. This argument is misplaced, as Section 9760(2) is not relevant to the matter before us. Section 9760(2) relates solely to those cases in which a defendant is "reprosecuted and resentenced for the same offense or for another offense based on the same acts." 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 9760(2). Thus, this section applies to the following, limited scenario: a defendant is convicted and sentenced; the defendant successfully appeals and is awarded a new trial; the defendant is reprosecuted, convicted and resentenced. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Potter, 478 Pa. 251, 386 A.2d 918 (1978) (finding that defendant's third conviction after previous trial errors was not precluded under double jeopardy principles).

¶ 10 In this case, Appellant has not been reprosecuted. Rather, Appellant was resentenced following a probation violation hearing. A probation violation hearing "differs from a trial, as probation and parole are not part of the criminal prosecution." Commonwealth v. Mullins, 591 Pa. 341, 918 A.2d 82, 85 (2007). Revocation of probation and resentencing does not implicate double jeopardy precisely because "revocation is not a second punishment for the original conviction, but rather is an integral element of the original conditional sentence." Mullins, 918 A.2d at 85, citing Commonwealth v. Pierce, 497 Pa. 437, 441 A.2d 1218, 1220 (1982).

¶ 11 Nevertheless, we find that Section 9760(1) entitles Appellant to credit for time served. This section mandates that "all time spent in custody as a result of the criminal charge for which a prison sentence is imposed or as a result of the conduct on which such a charge is based" must be credited to a defendant. 42 Pa. C.S.A. § 9760(1). The plain language of this statute clearly requires that Appellant is entitled to credit for all time he spent incarcerated prior to his resentencing on January 10, 2008.

¶ 12 Justice Saylor has recently noted that our jurisprudence has "unduly limited the effect of Section 9760(1)'s plain language." McCray v. Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections, 582 Pa. 440, 872 A.2d 1127, 1137 (2005) (Saylor, J., concurring).

Some of the complexity of our sentencing law arises from the failure to uniformly apply commonly understood procedures such as that which is prescribed by Section 9760(1) ... [t]he courts merely should apply the straightforward, statutorily-prescribed rule requiring the affordance...