Opinion ID: 2189569
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 30

Heading: Errors in the Judgments of Conviction and Commitment

Text: The defendant calls attention to several discrepancies between the transcript of the defendant's sentencing by the trial justice and the judgments of conviction and commitment (judgments). The defendant requests that these clerical errors be remedied. Rule 36 of the Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure states in pertinent part that: [c]lerical mistakes in judgments    arising from oversight or omission may be corrected by the court    on the motion of any party and after such notice, if any, as the court orders. The trial justice was clear in his sentencing, and it appears the discrepancies on the judgments are the results of clerical errors. This Court orders that the judgments for P2/00-1114A, P2/00-1052A and for P2/97-3209A be remanded to the Superior Court Clerk for corrections to the errors on the judgments in accordance with the trial justice's stated sentencing as follows: A. Case No. P2/00-1114A: The judgment states as to count 1 for threatening a public official that the sentence is five years consecutive to the sentence serving. The trial justice simply indicated that the sentence is to be five years. After setting out the sentences for each conviction, the trial justice also stated that these sentences are consecutive to the sentence [defendant's already] serving. Thus, in accordance with the trial justice's clear intent, the five year sentence for count 1 for threatening a public official shall run consecutive to the sentences defendant was serving as of the time of sentencing. [17] B. Case No. P2/00-1052A: i. The judgment provides as to count 1 for extortion and blackmail that the sentence is to be consecutive with P2/00-1114A and with sentence on violation. The trial justice stated that the sentence is to be consecutive only with P2/00-1114A. That sentence will not, therefore, also run consecutively with any sentences imposed on violation of probation. ii. The judgment only provides that the sentence on counts 2 and 3 of P2/00-1052A for extortion and blackmail, is fifteen years to serve. The trial justice additionally provided that the sentences for counts 2 and 3 are to be consecutive to P2/00-1114A. In accordance with the trial justice's stated sentencing, the sentence for counts 2 and 3 of P2/00-1052A for extortion and blackmail is fifteen years to serve, and will run consecutively to the sentences imposed in P2/00-1114A. iii. The judgment provides that the sentences for counts 8 and 9, which are five years on each count, for threats to public officials, are to be concurrent with the fifteen year sentence for counts 1-3 of the same information. The trial justice, however, stated that the sentences on counts 8 and 9 are to be concurrent with counts 1-3 and P2/00-1114A. That, however, is not possible, because the sentences for counts 1-3 are to run consecutively to those in P2/00-1114A. Thus, if counts 8 and 9 run concurrently to counts 1-3, then they must also run consecutively, and not concurrently, to P2/00-1114A. Thus, the ten-year total sentence for counts 8 and 9 will be concurrent with the fifteen-year sentence for counts 1-3 and not with P2/00-1114A. [18] iv. Concerning counts 12 and 13, both for violation of a no-contact order, and both with identical ten-year suspended sentences, the judgment refers to count 13 only, and the trial justice referred to count 12 only. This mistake is repeated; the judgment states that the sentences for counts 17, 18, 21, 23 and 26 are to be consecutive to the sentences in counts 10 and 13, while the trial justice stated that the sentences on the same counts are to be consecutive with counts 10 and 12. It is apparent that the Judgment erroneously substituted count 13 for count 12. Wherever count 13 appears on the judgment for P2/00-1052A, it shall be replaced with count 12. C. Case No. P2/97-3209A: The trial justice referred to counts 7, 9, 13 and 14, none of which appear on the judgment. These references appear to be either a transcription error or an error on the part of the trial justice because none of these counts appear in the trial justice's summary of charges, which he gave to the jury before their deliberations, or in the transcript of the jury's verdicts on each charge. Thus, these counts shall be stricken from the judgment for P2/97-3209A. The corrected sentences are also set out in the chart of charges, convictions and sentences imposed located in the Appendix to this opinion. This Court notes that the amount of time defendant must serve is thirty-five years, and that the above corrections did not change defendant's total amount of time to serve. Additionally, the defendant argues that, with regard to error B. iii., the trial justice in the sentencing transcript gave him a sentence that, as discussed above, is not logically sound. To remedy this discrepancy, the defendant requests that, pursuant to the rule of lenity, counts 8 and 9 should be deemed concurrent with the sentences in P2/00-1114A. When the meaning of a criminal statute is ambiguous, the policy of lenity in the construction of criminal statutes requires that the less harsh of two possible meanings be adopted. State v. Anthony, 422 A.2d 921, 925 (R.I.1980). Here, the ambiguity affects the defendant's sentence rather than a criminal statute; the rule of lenity does not, therefore, apply. Nevertheless, as stated above, this Court's holding that counts 8 and 9 shall run concurrently with counts 1-3 will not increase the amount of time the defendant must serve.