Com. v. Maldonado

• Decision Date: 11 August 2005
• Docket Number: No. 04-P-788.,04-P-788.
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. Alfredo MALDONADO.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

832 N.E.2d 690

64 Mass. App. Ct. 250

COMMONWEALTH v. Alfredo MALDONADO.

No. 04-P-788.

Appeals Court of Massachusetts, Worcester.

Argued June 13, 2005.

Decided August 11, 2005.

Alfredo Maldonado, pro se.

Michelle R. King, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth, submitted a brief.

Present: BERRY, DOERFER, & COHEN, JJ.

DOERFER, J.

On March 28, 2001, the defendant pleaded guilty to two drug-related offenses¹ and the trial judge sentenced him to five to six years at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Cedar Junction on the first charge, and to two and one-half to three years on the second charge, to be served on and after completion of the first sentence. At sentencing, the defendant received credit for 286 days spent in custody awaiting trial. G.L. c. 279, § 33A. The trial judge stayed the defendant's sentence until April 16, 2001, and simultaneously held the defendant without bail until that date. The defendant did not receive credit for the nineteen days during which his sentence was stayed but he was in custody. We agree that the judge should have allowed the defendant's subsequent motion to correct the mittimus to reflect credit for these nineteen days.

The opposition of the Commonwealth is founded on its reading of G.L. c. 279, § 33A, as appearing in St.1961, § 75, which states:

"The court on imposing a sentence of commitment to a correctional institution of the commonwealth, a house of correction, or a jail, shall order that the prisoner be deemed to have served a portion of said sentence, such portion to be the number of days spent by the prisoner in confinement prior to such sentence awaiting and during trial."

Although the Commonwealth is correct in arguing that the language of the applicable statute provides that credit shall be granted to a defendant upon "imposing a sentence" only for time served "in confinement prior to such sentence awaiting and during trial," the statute does not deal with the situation in which execution of the sentence is stayed but the defendant remains in custody by virtue of his bail being revoked during the stay. Here, where the statute does not strictly control, considerations of fairness and fair treatment of the defendant guide the determination whether to give jail credit. Commonwealth v. Grant, 366 Mass. 272, 275, 317 N.E.2d 484 (1974). Chalifoux v. Commissioner of Correction, 375 Mass. 424, 427-428, 377 N.E.2d 923 (1978). Commonwealth v. McLaughlin, 431 Mass. 506, 520, 729 N.E.2d 252 (2000). Commonwealth v. Boland, 43 Mass.App.Ct. 451, 453-454, 683 N.E.2d 726 (1997). We reject "an overly legalistic approach" toward jail credit matters, Manning v. Superintendent, Mass. Correctional Inst., Norfolk, 372 Mass. 387, 394, 361 N.E.2d 1299 (1977), quoting from Brown v. Commissioner of Correction, 336 Mass. 718, 722, 147 N.E.2d 782 (1958), and rely on the "rule that would remedy the injustice of a prisoner serving time for which he receives no credit. Liberty is of immeasurable value; it will not do to read statutes and opinions blind to the possible injustice of denying credit." Manning v. Superintendent, Mass. Correctional Inst., Norfolk, supra. See Commonwealth v. Carter, 10 Mass.App.Ct. 618, 620, 411 N.E.2d 184 (1980) ("statutory purpose [in providing jail credit] was to afford relief to persons who because of inability to obtain bail were held in custody").

Here, there is obviously no claim or possibility that the defendant is banking time or getting double credit. Compare Manning v. Superintendent, Mass. Correctional Inst., Norfolk, 372 Mass. at 395-396, 361 N.E.2d 1299; Commonwealth v. Milton, 427 Mass. 18, 24-25, 690 N.E.2d 1232 (1998). There is a strong policy against defendants serving "dead time." See Piggott v. Commissioner of Correction, 40 Mass.App.Ct. 678, 682, 666 N.E.2d 1314 (1996). If denied credit for the time held in custody without the possibility of bail, the defendant would serve dead time for the relevant nineteen-day period.

The issue of the effect of a stay of execution of sentence on the time to be served was identified in Commonwealth v. McLaughlin, 431 Mass. at 514-515, 729 N.E.2d 252, in which the trial judge sentenced the defendant to prison and then stayed execution of the sentences until his release from civil commitment at Bridgewater State Hospital. The Supreme Judicial Court noted that the defendant was entitled to credit for time spent in custody (jail and hospital) before trial (between when the crimes occurred and when the sentences were imposed) and for time spent while serving his sentence (time committed to the hospital after he had started to serve his sentence). Ibid. This left uncredited a gap of time "between trial and executi...