State v. Fugate

883 N.E.2d 440, 117 Ohio St. 3d 261
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 6, 2008
DocketNo. 2006-2289
StatusPublished
Cited by209 cases

This text of 883 N.E.2d 440 (State v. Fugate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Fugate, 883 N.E.2d 440, 117 Ohio St. 3d 261 (Ohio 2008).

Opinions

Lanzinger, J.

{¶ 1} This case presents us with the question whether a defendant who is sentenced concurrently on multiple charges is entitled to have “jail-time credit” 1 applied toward all terms. We hold that defendants who are sentenced to concurrent prison terms are entitled to have jail-time credit applied toward all prison terms for charges on which they were held.

Facts

2} Appellant, Daniel J. Fugate, was indicted in case No. 05CR-4367 on one count of burglary, a second-degree felony, and one count of theft, a fifth-degree felony. A jury later found him guilty of theft as charged in the indictment and of the lesser included charge of burglary, a third-degree-felony.

{¶ 3} Fugate had previously been convicted in case No. 05CR-1414 for receiving stolen property and had been placed on community control. Following his indictment for burglary and theft, the probation department filed a motion to revoke his community control. The trial court held a hearing on the motion immediately before sentencing Fugate on the new charges. At the revocation hearing, Fugate admitted that his new convictions for burglary and theft violated the terms of his community control. The probation officer informed the court that Fugate had 216 days of jail-time credit, and the prosecutor suggested that the credit be applied only to the sentence for violation of community control. Defense counsel did not object, and the court imposed a prison term of 12 months [263]*263for the community-control violation, noting a jail-time credit of 213 days.2 The court also stated that the sentence was to run concurrently with the sentences to be imposed for the burglary and theft convictions in the new case.

{¶ 4} The court then imposed a concurrent two-year prison term for the burglary conviction. No jail-time credit was allowed, and defense counsel did not object.

{¶ 5} At a later resentencing, held because the court had failed to sentence Fugate on the theft conviction, the court imposed a six-month prison term to run concurrently with the two-year term for burglary.3

{¶ 6} Fugate appealed, arguing in part that he should have received jail-time credit of 213 days toward each of his concurrent prison sentences. The Tenth District Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that allocating jail-time credit against only the prison term for community-control violation did not constitute an equal protection violation, or amount to plain error. Fugate appealed, and we accepted the appeal to determine how to apply jail-time credit to concurrent prison terms.

Analysis

{¶ 7} The practice of awarding jail-time credit, although now covered by state statute, has its roots in the Equal Protection Clauses of the Ohio and United States Constitutions. Recognizing that the Equal Protection Clause does not tolerate disparate treatment of defendants based solely on their economic status, the United States Supreme Court has repeatedly struck down rules and practices that discriminate against defendants based solely on their inability to pay fines and fees. See Griffin v. Illinois (1956), 351 U.S. 12, 76 S.Ct. 585, 100 L.Ed. 891 (a state cannot deny appellate review to defendants unable to afford a transcript); Williams v. Illinois (1970), 399 U.S. 235, 90 S.Ct. 2018, 26 L.Ed.2d 586 (a state may not imprison a defendant beyond the statutory maximum based solely on his inability to pay a fine); Tate v. Short (1971), 401 U.S. 395, 91 S.Ct. 668, 28 L.Ed.2d 130 (a state may not impose a fine as a sentence and then automatically convert it to jail time based upon the defendant’s inability to immediately pay the fine). Relying on the principle set forth in such cases, courts have held that defendants who are unable to afford bail must be credited for the time they are confined while awaiting trial. “The Equal Protection Clause requires that all time spent in any jail prior to trial and commitment by [a prisoner who is] unable to make bail because of indigency must be credited to his sentence.” (Emphasis [264]*264sic.) Workman v. Cardwell (N.D.Ohio 1972), 338 F.Supp. 893, 901, vacated in part on other grounds (C.A.6, 1972), 471 F.2d 909. See also White v. Gilligan (S.D.Ohio 1972), 351 F.Supp. 1012.

{¶ 8} This principle is codified in Ohio at R.C. 2967.191, which states that “[t]he department of rehabilitation and correction shall reduce the stated prison term of a prisoner * * * by the total number of days that the prisoner was confined for any reason arising out of the offense for which the prisoner was convicted and sentenced, including confinement in lieu of bail while awaiting trial * * *.”

{¶ 9} The Ohio Administrative Code provides additional details regarding when a prisoner is entitled to jail-time credit and how to calculate a prison term, taking the credit into account. Most relevant to the question before us is Ohio Adm.Code 5120-2-04(F), which states that “[i]f an offender is serving two or more sentences, stated prison terms or combination thereof concurrently, the adult parole authority shall independently reduce each sentence or stated prison term for the number of days confined for that offense. Release of the offender shall be based upon the longest definite, minimum and/or maximum sentence or stated prison term after reduction for jail time credit.” (Emphasis added.)

{¶ 10} The Administrative Code provides a different rule for calculating jail-time credit for offenders serving consecutive terms. In such cases, the code instructs that jail-time credit be applied only once, to the total term. See Ohio Adm.Code 5120-2-04(G).

{¶ 11} These two directives make clear that although concurrent and consecutive terms are to be treated differently when jail-time credit is applied, the overall objective is the same: to comply with the requirements of equal protection by reducing the total time that offenders spend in prison after sentencing by an amount equal to the time that they were previously held.

{¶ 12} Thus, in order to satisfy this objective, when concurrent prison terms are imposed, courts do not have the discretion to select only one term from those that are run concurrently against which to apply jail-time credit. R.C. 2967.191 requires that jail-time credit be applied to all prison terms imposed for charges on which the offender has been held. If courts were permitted to apply jail-time credit to only one of the concurrent terms, the practical result would be, as in this case, to deny credit for time that an offender was confined while being held on pending charges. So long as an offender is held on a charge while awaiting trial or sentencing, the offender is entitled to jail-time credit for that sentence; a court cannot choose one of several concurrent terms against which to apply the credit.

{¶ 13} In the case before us today, Fugate was given concurrent prison terms on the burglary and theft convictions and on the community-control violation. The only complete record that we have before us is from the burglary and theft case, as that was the case appealed. At his sentencing hearing, the following [265]

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Ochoa
2023 Ohio 978 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2023)
State v. Webb
2023 Ohio 677 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2023)
State v. Travis
2023 Ohio 33 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2023)
State v. Schoenstein
2022 Ohio 4446 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2022)
State v. Allen
2020 Ohio 5155 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2020)
State v. Fisher
2020 Ohio 3764 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2020)
State v. Macko
2020 Ohio 3410 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2020)
State v. Dennison
2020 Ohio 2699 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2020)
State v. Dobbins
2020 Ohio 726 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2020)
State v. Heys
2020 Ohio 692 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2020)
State v. Miller
2020 Ohio 745 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2020)
State v. McClellan
2019 Ohio 5034 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2019)
State v. Tibbs
2019 Ohio 4721 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2019)
State v. Augustine
2019 Ohio 3867 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2019)
State v. Salmons
2019 Ohio 3541 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2019)
State v. Carberry
2019 Ohio 3303 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2019)
State v. Snowden
2019 Ohio 2840 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2019)
State v. Moss
2019 Ohio 2167 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2019)
State v. Gibson
2019 Ohio 383 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2019)
State v. Cupp (Slip Opinion)
2018 Ohio 5211 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2018)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
883 N.E.2d 440, 117 Ohio St. 3d 261, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-fugate-ohio-2008.