Opinion ID: 1532415
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Mandamus Clear Right to Relief

Text: We must next determine whether McCray had a clear right to relief. The Department relies on the Opinion of the Superior Court in Commonwealth v. Williams, 443 Pa.Super. 479, 662 A.2d 658 (1995), petition for allowance of appeal denied, 544 Pa. 607, 674 A.2d 1071 (1996). Williams pled guilty and was sentenced to eleven and one-half to twenty-three months incarceration plus a consecutive term of three years probation. His probation was subsequently revoked and a new sentence of three and one-half to seven years incarceration was imposed by the trial court. Williams challenged the sentence and the Superior Court agreed that the time Williams initially spent in prison prior to his probation revocation had to be credited to his revocation sentence because Williams' total confinement would exceed the legal maximum established for his crime. The Department also relies on Commonwealth v. Bowser, 783 A.2d 348 (Pa.Super.2001), petition for allowance of appeal denied, 568 Pa. 733, 798 A.2d 1286 (2002). In Bowser, the majority of the Superior Court panel held that Section 9760 of the Sentencing Code and Williams only apply when the maximum term of the revocation sentence combined with the time previously served on the original sentence exceed the statutory maximum penalty for the criminal charge. Such concerns are not present in the instant matter. Here, the trial court convicted McCray of three counts of aggravated assault graded as a first-degree felony. First-degree felonies are punishable by up to twenty years in prison. 18 Pa.C.S. § 1103(1). The court also found him guilty of conspiracy, which is a second-degree felony punishable by up to ten years in prison. 18 Pa.C.S. § 1103(2). The trial court's probation revocation sentence of four concurrent terms of two to four years of incarceration for the three aggravated assault convictions and the criminal conspiracy conviction plus a consecutive term of five years of probation for the criminal conspiracy conviction is significantly less than the maximum probation revocation sentence of thirty-five to seventy years of incarceration. Therefore, as in Bowser, the concerns regarding the imposition of an illegal sentence that were present in Williams, are not at issue in this case. McCray's position echoes that of Judge Olszewski in his dissenting opinion in Bowser in which he expressed his belief that Section 9760(1) of the Sentencing Code mandates that an inmate is entitled to credit on any sentence for all time spent in custody as a result of the criminal charge for which a prison sentence is imposed.. . . Considering the existence of the Williams and Bowser decisions, and the fact that Section 9760 appears in Subchapter E of the Sentencing Code governing Imposition of Sentence and not in Subchapter F governing Further Judicial Action, which includes Section 9771 (Modification or revocation of order of probation), it cannot be said that McCray had a clear right to relief.