Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

102 Pa. Commw. 287

Caldwell v. Commonwealth

Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania

Decided November 20, 1986

Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania · decided 1986-11-20

Cited by 2 later decisions — most recently February 1999

2 state decisions

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“[w]e duly note that due process does not require that a criminal defendant receive credit on a subsequent unrelated sentence for time served on a prior invalid sentence. See United States ex rel. Smith v. Rundle, 285 F.Supp. 965 (E.D.Pa.1966[sic]). There is no constitutional requirement that the time a defendant served on a prior invalid sentence must be credited against a subsequent valid sentence arising from unrelated offenses as the Constitution does not authorize penal checking accounts.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Siers v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation & Parole

Relies on Rivenbark v. Commonwealth, Pennsylvania Board of Probation & Parole · Rivenbark v. COM. PA. BD. OF PROB. & P. · Krantz v. Commonwealth

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1986-11-20

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Opinion by

Judge Barry,

¶2Donald Caldwell, the petitioner, appeals an order of the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole (Board), *288which denied petitioners request that he be given a credit for six months he had served previously.

¶3While on parole, petitioner pled guilty to illegal possession of a machine gun. As a result, he was recommitted as both a convicted and technical parole violator and ordered to serve six months backtime as a technical violator and twelve months backtime as a convicted violator. The technical violation was based on conduct which constituted the crime for which he was convicted. In 1982, petitioner was reparoled.

¶4In January of 1985, petitioner pleaded guilty to unlawfully obtaining public assistance. As a result of the conviction, petitioner was recommitted as a convicted parole violator in May of 1985, and was ordered to serve thirty-six months backtime as a convicted violator. That matter is presently pending before this Court, petitioner having filed a petition for review.

¶5In December of 1985, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court handed down its decision in Rivenbark v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, 509 Pa. 248, 501 A.2d 1110 (1985), which held that one may not be recommitted as both a convicted and technical parole violator when the technical violation constituted the same conduct which formed the basis of the new criminal conviction. In January of 1986, petitioner, by letter to the Board, requested that he be given credit for the six months backtime he had served as a technical violator for the machine gun incident. The Board refused to grant such a credit and this appeal followed.

¶6The Board concedes that Rivenbarkis retroactive and that, under such retroactive application, petitioner was erroneously recommitted for a six month period as a technical parole violator. Nonetheless, the Board argues that petitioner should not be entitled to a credit against the backtime he was ordered to serve for the parole violations which resulted in the revocation of his parole in 1985. We agree.

¶7*289In Krantz v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, 86 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 38, 483 A.2d 1044 (1984), a parolee was arrested on December 30, 1980 for alleged technical parole violations. Some seven months later, the parolee was released from prison when the Board found that such violations had not been proved at the hearing. When the parolee was subsequently recommitted for fifteen months on unrelated parole violations, he sought to have time spent in prison in 1980-81 credited against the fifteen month commitment. The Board refused the credit and we affirmed. As Judge Williams stated:

We duly note that due process does not require that a criminal defendant receive credit on a subsequent unrelated sentence for time served on a prior invalid sentence. See United States ex rel. Smith v. Rundle, 285 F. Supp. 965 (E.D. Pa. 1966). There is no constitutional requirement that the time a defendant served on a prior invalid sentence must be credited against a subsequent valid sentence arising from unrelated offenses as the Constitution does not authorize penal checking accounts.

¶886 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. at 44-45, n. 5, 438 A.2d at 1048 n. 5 (emphasis added).

¶9Affirmed.

¶10Order

¶11Now, November 20th, 1986, the decision of the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, dated February 5, 1986, denying petitioner a credit, is affirmed.

/102/pacommw/287 · .json · Public domain