Opinion ID: 1141622
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Heading: Did the Prosecution Prove King Had Served Two Separate Sentences?

Text: Simply put, King's argument here is that concurrent sentences for admittedly separate crimes is insufficient under the dictates of Miss. Code Ann. § 99-19-83 (Supp. 1987), which provides: Every person convicted in this state of a felony who shall have been charged twice previously of any felony or federal crime upon charges separately brought and arising out of separate incidents at different times and who shall have been sentenced and served separate terms of one (1) year or more in any state and/or federal penal institution, whether in this state or elsewhere, and where any one (1) of such felonies shall have been a crime of violence shall be sentenced to life imprisonment, and such sentence shall not be reduced or suspended nor shall such person be eligible for parole or probation. (emphasis added) In Jackson v. State, 518 So.2d 1219 (Miss. 1988), this Court held that concurrent sentences for separate crimes arising out of separate incidents would support an habitual offender finding under Miss. Code Ann. § 99-19-81 (Supp. 1987). The Court stated: The appellant contends that concurrent sentences are not separate terms required by the statute for sentencing as a recividist. There is no merit to this contention. The language of the statute requires simply sentencing to separate terms, specifically omitting the requirement that they must be served separately, or that they must be served at all. As we stated in Taylor v. State, 426 So.2d 775, 779 (Miss. 1983), interpreting Miss. Code Ann. § 99-19-83: ... upon conviction, the accused, when charged that he previously was convicted of two (2) felonies, one of which constituted a crime of violence, and that he actually served one year or more on each sentence, shall be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole or probation. [emphasis added] See also Ellis v. State, 485 So.2d 1062, 1064 (Miss. 1986) (An essential ingredient of this section is that the defendant shall have served at least one year under each sentence. ) The question, thus, is whether serving one year or more on concurrent sentences for separate convictions amounts to serving more than one year on each sentence. We hold that it does. Though King served his sentence for his burglary conviction concurrently with the remainder of the armed robbery sentence, the two convictions resulted from separate prosecutions arising out of separate incidents at different times. King argues that the burglary sentence lost its separate identity by being made to run concurrently with a sentence already being served. Such is not the case. Had King received a pardon on the armed robbery conviction prior to the completion of his burglary sentence, the burglary sentence would not also have ended. King merely served a part of each of his separate sentences at the same time. Though not wholly on point, we find persuasive the reasoning of the Connecticut Supreme Court in State v. Clemons, 168 Conn. 395, 363 A.2d 33 (1975). In Clemons the Connecticut court addressed a similar attack to the imposition of its version of an habitual offender act where the defendant had been paroled in 1968, then convicted and sentenced to a term of incarceration to run concurrently with the remaining period of the 1966 incarceration. Under Connecticut law at the time, a third offender was one who has twice before been convicted, sentenced and imprisoned in a state prison or penitentiary. Id. at 408, 363 A.2d at 40. The Court upheld Clemons' sentence as a third offender, stating: The defendant's sole basis for contending that he is not a third offender is that the concurrence of the second incarceration with the period remaining on the first sentence prevents its constituting the second of two separate imprisonments. There is no merit to this argument. Placing such a construction on the statute and its successor, 53a-40, would tend to discourage concurrent sentences. The 1966 and 1968 convictions constitute separate judgments upon each of which the defendant was required to serve a set period of imprisonment. Had the defendant been pardoned of the second offense prior to completion of his term of imprisonment, or had he received a modification of that second term, he still would have been required to serve the term meted out in the first sentence. The imposition of a concurrent sentence is not an empty act, as the defendant's argument implies. Rather, it allows the court the flexibility of setting definite periods of imprisonment that fit the particular defendant's situation, despite that number of offenses to which the sentences apply; they remain, however, separate terms of imprisonment which the legislature has permitted to be served at one time. Id. at 408-09, 363 A.2d at 40. See also State v. Robinson, 262 N.W.2d 270, 272 (Iowa 1978) (quoting Clemons ). Though Connecticut apparently looks more favorably upon concurrent sentences than does Mississippi, see Miss. Code Ann. § 99-19-21 (Supp. 1987), we find this distinction not controlling in this context. King's concurrent sentence was separate and he served more than one year. This assignment of error is denied.