Commonwealth Ex Rel. Harman v. Burke

91 A.2d 385, 171 Pa. Super. 547, 1952 Pa. Super. LEXIS 441
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 1, 1952
DocketAppeal, 35
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 91 A.2d 385 (Commonwealth Ex Rel. Harman v. Burke) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth Ex Rel. Harman v. Burke, 91 A.2d 385, 171 Pa. Super. 547, 1952 Pa. Super. LEXIS 441 (Pa. Ct. App. 1952).

Opinion

Opinion by

Rhodes, P. J.,

This is an appeal from an order denying relator’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

Relator was originally sentenced at No. 11, October Sessions, 1936, in the Court of Quarter Sessions of York County to a term of not less than two years nor more than four years in the Eastern State Penitentiary upon his conviction of an attempt to commit burglary. The effective date of the sentence was September 14, 1936.

Relator was released on parole on September 28, 1938, at which time there. remained unserved of his maximum sentence one year, eleven months and sixteen days. On December 3, 1938, he was arrested in York County for drunkenness, after which he was re *550 committed by the Board of Parole as a parole violator. After serving twenty days on this recommitment, he was released on December 27, 1938.

On February 8, 1939, he was again arrested in York County and thereafter charged with burglary and related crimes at No. 13, April Sessions, 1939, and with arson at No. 14, April Sessions, 1939. He entered guilty pleas to both indictments, and was sentenced to serve a term of not less than five years nor more than ten years in the Eastern State Penitentiary on each bill. The court, in imposing these sentences, provided that they were “to run concurrently and to begin at the time of his first incarceration and be in addition to his liability under the law for the breaking of his parole.”

Upon his recommitment to the penitentiary, on April 26, 1939, he was credited with the period of confinement in the York County Prison from the date of his arrest, February 8, 1939, to the date of his recommitment to the penitentiary, April 26, 1939. As of February 8, 1939, there remained unserved, as computed by the authorities, of his original maximum sentence one year, eleven months, and sixteen days. For the twenty days relator served in December, 1938, upon his recommitment as a technical parole violator, no credit was given.

On January 24, 1941, relator was reentered on the prison records as beginning to serve the concurrent sentences imposed at Nos. 13 and 14, April Sessions, 1939. Five years thereafter, on January 24, 1946, relator was again paroled. Although the prison records indicate that at. such time there remained five years of relator’s maximum sentence to be served, both the District Attorney of York County and the Pennsylvania Board of Parole concede that he should be credited with the twenty, days served after a technical parole *551 violation. Accordingly there then remained unserved four years, eleven months and ten days of his maximum term.

On February 12, 1946, relator violated his parole by leaving the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and going to Maryland without the permission of the parole authorities. On June 12, 1946, he was arrested in Baltimore, Maryland, on suspicion of burglary. A detainer was lodged against him with the Maryland authorities by the Pennsylvania Board of Parole. On July 8, 1946, he was convicted of burglary in Baltimore and sentenced to serve four years in the Maryland House of Correction. Upon completion of his Maryland sentence on May 29, 1949, he was returned to Pennsylvania as a convicted parole violator and recommitted to the Eastern State Penitentiary. The unserved remainder of his maximum sentences at Nos. 13 and 14, April Sessions, 1939, allowing credit for the twenty days served in December, 1939, will expire May 9, 1954.

In his petition and brief, relator alleges many errors and irregularities in the procedure resulting in his confinement. We find no merit in any of his contentions.

Belator first contends that he should have been allowed credit against the maximum term of his original sentence (No. 11, October Sessions, 1936) for the seventy days intervening between the time of his release on parole, September 28, 1938, and the time of his re-commitment as a technical parole violator, December 7, 1938. He cites in support of this contention Com. ex rel. Crimmins v. Smith, 118 Pa. Superior Ct. 255, 180 A. 181, as well as Com. ex rel. Tate v. Burke, 364 Pa. 179, 71 A. 2d 241. These cases are authority to the effect that under section 14 of the Act of June 19, 1911, P. L. 1055, as amended by the Act of June 3, *552 1915, P. L. 788, and as supplied by the Act of May 1, 1929, P. L. 1182, 61 PS §§309, 310, where a parolee is recommitted for a breach of his parole consisting of a violation of a rule of the Pennsylvania Board of Parole, the remainder of the period equal to the parolee’s maximum term which he must serve is to be computed from the date of his arrest for such breach of parole, thus giving credit against the unexpired maximum term of his sentence for the time he was out of prison as the result of a parole and not having committed a crime punishable by imprisonment. See, also, Com. ex rel. Carmelo v. Burke, 168 Pa. Superior Ct. 109, 117, 78 A. 2d 20. Had relator’s delinquencies ceased as of that time he would have been entitled to credit for the time while on parole. But relator was again released on parole, and thereafter committed two crimes punishable by imprisonment for which he was convicted. By reason thereof the provisions of section 10 of the Act of June 19, 1911, P. L. 1055, as amended by the Act of June 22, 1931, P. L. 862, §1, 61 PS §305, became applicable to him. Under this section of the applicable Act, where the parole of a prisoner sentenced to the penitentiary is revoked and terminated upon conviction of another crime committed during his parole, the prisoner shall be imprisoned for the remainder of the term or original sentence not served when the parole was granted, and no credit may be allowed for the time he was out on parole. See Com. ex rel. Carmelo v. Burke, supra, 168 Pa. Superior Ct. 109, 112, 78 A. 2d 20. The fact that at one time relator might have been entitled to credit for time spent on parole does not preclude the forfeiture of such right by his subsequent conviction of a crime committed during parole after having been again released thereon.

Relator further contends that service of the remainder of the original term (No. 11, October. Séssi'ons, *553 1936) was concurrent with service of the sentences imposed at Nos. 13 and 14, April Sessions, 1939, beginning as of February 8, 1939, the date of his arrest on the latter charges. He bases this contention in part upon the statement of the sentencing judge upon imposition of the latter sentences to the effect that they were “to run concurrently and to begin at the time of his first incarceration and be in addition to his liability under the law for the breaking of his parole.” Because of such language, he argues, the effective date of the latter two sentences then imposed was established as “the time of his first incarceration,” which was February 8, 1939.

This contention is not novel; and it has no merit. In Com. ex rel. Lerner v. Smith, 151 Pa. Superior Ct. 265, 30 A. 2d 347, a similar argument was advanced. In the Lerner

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91 A.2d 385, 171 Pa. Super. 547, 1952 Pa. Super. LEXIS 441, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-ex-rel-harman-v-burke-pasuperct-1952.