Alexander v. Commonwealth, Pennsylvania Board of Probation & Parole
Alexander v. Commonwealth, Pennsylvania Board of Probation & Parole
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
G-ary Lee Alexander (Petitioner) appeals here from an order of tbe Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole (Board) which denied his request for administrative relief seeking recomputation of bis sentence.
On October 23,1974, Judge Sawyer of tbe Court of Common Pleas of Beaver County sentenced Petitioner to a term of not less than one (1) nor more than three (3) years. Also on October 23, 1974, Judge Rowley of tbe same court revoked a previously deferred sentence
Whenever two or more sentences are imposed on a defendant to run consecutively, there shall be deemed to be imposed upon such defendant, unless otherwise stated by the judge, a sentence the minimum of which shall be the total of the minimum limits of the several sentences so imposed, and the maximum of which shall be the total of the maximum limits of such sentence.
The predecessor to this provision, Section 1 of the Act of June 25, 1937, P.L. 2093, as amended, 19 P.S. §897,
As stated by this Court in Cunningham, the .significance of not having sentences aggregated is that:
[A] prisoner sentenced to two consecutive terms by different judges could have applied for parole at the end of the minimum term of the first sentence, and, if such a “constructive parole” had been allowed, could have immediately entered the minimum term of the second sentence while, at the same time, serving the balance of the maximum term of his first sentence. Thus, the final maximum term expiration date could occur earlier, as illustrated by petitioner’s contention in this case, as a consequence of overlapping the balance of the first term with the second term. (Emphasis in original.)
Id. 39 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 231-32, 394 A.2d at 1316.
Employing this concept of “constructive parole”, Petitioner asserts that at the expiration of his minimum sentence on April 13, 1975, he would have begun to. serve the second term. The result would be a maximum parole date of April 13, 1978. Thus, Petitioner argues , that upon being convicted again in 1979, he should not have been recommitted as a parole violator but-instead should have begun to serve the new sentences imposed for those crimes.
The flaw in Petitioner’s argument is that we do not know whether the Board would have granted him
Accordingly, the Board’s order is affirmed.
Order
And Now, September 10, 1984, the order of the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, dated May 24, 1983, is affirmed.
In his brief Petitioner claims that he is appealing from the Board’s March 24, 1983 order denying his request for recomputation of his sentence and. the Board’s May 23, 1979 order recommitting him as a technical parole violator. Inasmuch as Petitioner’s appeal from the May 23, 1979 order is clearly untimely, we need not address the propriety of that order. See 42 Pa. C. S. §5571 (b).
In lieu of sentence, Petitioner had been placed on probation for a period of three (3) years.
As a result of these convictions, Petitioner was also sentenced to consecutive terms of two (2) to four (4) years and one (1) to two and one-half (2 1/2) years.
This provision has since been replaced by 18 Pa. C. S. §1357.
Suspended by Pa. R. Crim. P. 1415(c) as being inconsistent with Pa. R. Crim. P. 1406(b). This statute provided:
Whenever, after the effective date of this Act, two or more sentences to run consecutively are imposed by any court of this Commonwealth upon any person convicted of crime therein, there shall be deemed to be imposed upon such person a sentence the minimum of which shall be the total of the minimum limits of the several sentences so imposed, and the maximum of which shall be the total of the maximum limits of such sentences.
This interpretation is further buttressed by the draftsmen’s comment to the current version of Pa. R. Crim. P. 1406 which reads: “The 1974 amendment deleted the original second paragraph of this Rule, dealing with the simultaneous imposition of two or more sentences.” (Emphasis added.)
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.