People v. Norton

• Decision Date: 21 January 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02SC91.,02SC91.
• Citation: 63 P.3d 339
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Petitioner, v. Jason T. NORTON, Respondent.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

63 P.3d 339

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Petitioner, v. Jason T. NORTON, Respondent.

No. 02SC91.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

January 21, 2003.

Rehearing Denied February 24, 2003.¹

Ken Salazar, Attorney General, John D. Seidel, Assistant Attorney General, Appellate Division, Criminal Justice Section, Denver, Colorado, Attorneys for Petitioner.

David S. Kaplan, Colorado State Public Defender, Elisabeth Hunt White, Deputy State Public Defender, Denver, Colorado, Attorneys for Respondent.

Justice RICE delivered the Opinion of the Court.

We granted certiorari in this case to consider whether a mandatory parolee who is incarcerated after committing a new crime while on parole may have his presentence confinement credit ("PSCC") applied toward the sentence resulting from the new charge, or must have it apply toward the sentence for which he was on parole.² In addressing this question, we specifically consider the scope and effect of section 18-1.3-405, 6 C.R.S. (2002)³ on mandatory parolees who commit a new offense while on parole in light of the 1988 amendment to that statute and the General Assembly's 1993 amendments to the felony sentencing scheme.

In examining this issue, the court of appeals construed section 18-1.3-405 together with section 17-22.5-203, 6 C.R.S. (2002), and concluded that, when read together, these two statutes created ambiguity as to whether PSCC should attach to the new charge or the previous one. People v. Norton, 49 P.3d 344, 346 (Colo.App.2001). The court concluded that until such time as the defendant's parole was revoked, the time he spent in jail was attributable to the new offense, and hence, PSCC must be applied against the new charge. Id.

We reverse. We hold that the plain meaning of section 18-1.3-405 indicates that PSCC earned as a result of being reincarcerated on a parole violation must be applied against the previous offense. The plain language of section 18-1.3-405, coupled with the legislative intent evidenced in the 1988 amendment of that statute and the 1993 amendments to the criminal sentencing scheme, lead us to the conclusion that application of PSCC to the previous offense is the only means by which the courts can avoid granting duplicative credit to offenders, a result the General Assembly unambiguously sought to prevent. We also find the court of appeals' reliance on section 17-22.5-203 misplaced, and hold that that statute is inapplicable to the present case.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In 1999, after being incarcerated on two previous felony convictions (the "previous offenses"),⁴ Respondent Jason T. Norton was released on mandatory parole to an Intensive Supervision Program. Norton subsequently left his area of confinement without notifying his parole officer. As a result, he was arrested and charged with the new crime of escape. Norton remained in jail for approximately sixty-nine days until he pled guilty to attempted escape and received a stipulated sentence of eighteen months (the "new" or "current" offense) in the Department of Corrections ("DOC"), to be served consecutively with his previous sentences. Shortly thereafter, Norton's parole on the previous convictions was revoked. Norton sought to have his sixty-nine days of PSCC applied against the eighteen month sentence for attempted escape, a request the trial court denied.

The court of appeals reversed, holding that Norton's PSCC should have been applied against his sentence for attempted escape. In arriving at this holding, the court of appeals based its reasoning on the "interplay" between section 18-1.3-405 and section 17-22.5-203 and this court's decision in Wiedemer v. People, 784 P.2d 739 (Colo.1989). Norton, 49 P.3d at 346. The court determined that section 17-22.5-203, as interpreted and applied by this court in Wiedemer, required that the time between Norton's release onto parole and the revocation of his parole was not deemed part of his "sentence" for the previous offenses. Id. Therefore, the court of appeals reasoned, any PSCC earned while in jail awaiting sentencing on the new offense and prior to the revocation of parole could only be applied against the new offense. Id.

The State disagreed with the court of appeals' interpretation, arguing that there is no conflict between section 18-1.3-405 and section 17-22.5-203 because the latter applies only to discretionary parolees. The State also contends that the plain language of section 18-1.3-405, coupled with the intent of the mandatory parole scheme, requires that where an offender commits a new offense while on parole for previous offenses, any PSCC earned must be applied against the previous offense in order to avoid duplicative credit. We agree with the State's interpretation, and now reverse.

II. SECTION 18-1.3-405, 6 C.R.S. (2002)

Because this case in large part turns on the interpretation of section 18-1.3-405, we begin our analysis with that statute:

A person who is confined for an offense prior to the imposition of sentence for said offense is entitled to credit against the term of his or her sentence for the entire period of such confinement. At the time of sentencing, the court shall make a finding of the amount of presentence confinement to which the offender is entitled and shall include such finding in the mittimus. Such period of confinement shall be deducted from the sentence by the department of corrections. If a defendant is serving a sentence or is on parole for a previous offense when he or she commits a new offense and he or she continues to serve the sentence for the previous offense while charges on the new offense are pending, the credit given for presentence confinement under this section shall be granted against the sentence the defendant is currently serving for the previous offense and shall not be granted against the sentence for the new offense.

§ 18-1.3-405, 6 C.R.S. (2002) (emphasis added). The last sentence of the statute was added as an amendment in 1988. Ch. 110, sec. 2, § 16-11-306, 1988 Colo. Sess. Laws 663-64. The highlighted language, bringing parolees within the scope of the bill, was added to the proposed amendment by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Hearing Before the Senate Judiciary Comm., 56th Gen. Assemb., 1st Sess., 4:10 p.m. (1988) (testimony of Sen. Cole). The bill as amended by the Senate Judiciary Committee was subsequently adopted by the House without further change. H.B. 88-1156, 56th Gen. Assemb., 1st Sess., 10:26 a.m. (1988). The statute was not amended as a result of the comprehensive changes later made to the criminal sentencing scheme in 1993, nor has it been amended since that time.

To understand the 1993 amendments to the criminal sentencing scheme, a brief overview of the history of the sentencing statutes leading up to those amendments may prove a useful starting point. Prior to 1979, once an offender became eligible for parole, the parole board made the sole determination of whether, when, and for what amount of his remaining prison term an offender was released on parole. Martin v. People, 27 P.3d 846, 865 (Colo.2001) (Coats, J., dissenting). In 1979, the General Assembly adopted "determinate" sentencing which, among other things, mandated that offenders who had acquired certain "good time" and "earned time" credits must be released on parole. Thiret v. Kautzky, 792 P.2d 801, 804, n. 6 (Colo.1990); see also ch. 157, secs. 1-26, 1979 Colo. Sess. Laws 664-672. This change effectively created a system of mandatory parole and significantly diminished the discretion of the parole board. Thiret, 792 P.2d at 804. In 1985, however, the legislature amended the parole statutes another time, once again vesting the parole board with complete discretion to grant or deny parole to offenders, with the exception of those serving sentences for crimes committed on or after July 1, 1979 but before July 1, 1985. Id. This was how the criminal sentencing scheme stood as of the 1988 amendments to section 18-1.3-405.

The inception of statutory mandatory parole in 1993 yet again radically altered this balance by implementing a specific, nondiscretionary term of parole. Under the new system, the length of the parole term is no longer related to the unserved remainder of the sentence to confinement. Instead, all class two through six felons are subject to a mandatory period of parole when their period of incarceration terminates (either by its natural expiration or as a result of an early release decision by the parole board). § 18-1.3-401(1)(a)(V)(B), 6 C.R.S. (2002). The length of the mandatory parole period is predetermined by the class of felony of which the offender has been convicted. § 18-1.3-401(1)(a)(V)(A). Thus, "mandatory parole is a statutorily prescribed sentence component that attaches automatically to any sentence involving imprisonment," Craig v. People, 986 P.2d 951, 959 (Colo.1999), and the penalty imposed on felony offenders consists of both an incarceration component and a parole component. People v. Luther, 58 P.3d 1013, 1015 (Colo.2002).

Because the amendment to section 18-1.3-405 in 1988 predated the introduction of the mandatory parole scheme in 1993, however, that amendment as originally enacted could only have contemplated the inclusion of discretionary parolees within its scope. The General Assembly, however, has made no further amendments to section 18-1.3-405 since 1988. The task before us today, then, is to determine whether the introduction of the mandatory parole scheme resulted in the incorporation of mandatory parolees within the scope of section 18-1.3-405, or whether that statute still remains applicable only to discretionary parolees. This analysis, in turn, will enable us to determine towards which offense Norton's PSCC must be applied.

With this introduction to the context within which our inquiry must take place, we now proceed to a direct analysis of the statute at issue. Our primary responsibility in any statutory analysis is...