Opinion ID: 351722
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Qualification as a Special Offender.

Text: 13 Under 18 U.S.C. § 3575(e)(1), a person is a special offender if he 14 has previously been convicted in courts of the United States, (or) a State . . . for two or more offenses committed on occasions different from one another and from (the instant) felony and punishable in such courts by death or imprisonment in excess of one year, for one or more of such convictions (he) has been imprisoned prior to the commission of (the instant) felony, and less than five years have elapsed between the commission of (the instant) felony and either (his) release, on parole or otherwise, from imprisonment for one such conviction or his commission of the last such previous offense or another offense punishable by death or imprisonment in excess of one year under applicable laws. . . . 15 To support a finding of special offender in this case, the government alleged in its petition that Williamson 16 was convicted in the Court of General Session of Greenville County, South Carolina, in September, 1965 for Housebreaking and Larceny for which he was given probation, and in December, 1972 for Manslaughter for which he was sentenced to four (4) years. The defendant was imprisoned and he was released June 26, 1974. 17 The order sentencing defendant as a special dangerous offender was entered on March 5, 1976. Defendant does not challenge the use of the 1972 manslaughter conviction as qualifying him for special offender status, which conviction not only counts as one of the needed felonies, but also is the one upon which defendant was incarcerated within the past five years. Defendant does, however, challenge the 1965 housebreaking and larceny conviction as being too remote in time to be employed in the proceeding. Since the statute does not otherwise place a time limit on the convictions which may be considered, the defendant urges that we adopt a ten-year rule, similar to Rule 609(b) of the Federal Rules of Evidence, and exclude from consideration in a § 3575 proceeding any conviction more than ten years old. 8 We refuse to adopt such a rule for two reasons. 18 First, the statute logically does not include any limitation on the age of a conviction which may be used to qualify the defendant as a special offender. In many cases, a ten-year limitation would be inconsistent with the purposes of § 3575 since the defendant could have served more than ten years imprisonment on his most recent incarceration, and would not be subject to § 3575 treatment merely because he had been confined in prison. 19 Second, Congress required that less than five years have elapsed between the commission of (the instant) felony and either the defendant's release, on parole or otherwise, from imprisonment for one such conviction . . . . 18 U.S.C. § 3575(e)(1). By so providing, Congress expressly recognized the need for a time limitation on the most recent imprisonment, and likewise, it fairly can be concluded that had Congress envisioned a time limitation for all previous felonies, it would have incorporated such into the statute. 20 Therefore, the government's allegations met the requirements for qualifying defendant as a special offender. 21