Opinion ID: 1355776
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: time off the minimum sentence

Text: Appellant argues that the trial court is required by his indigence and the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution to credit his mandatory minimum sentence with the presentence time served. We have repeatedly held that an indigent only has a constitutional right to have the maximum term of his sentence reduced by presentence time served. This reduction mandatorily occurs when the sum of presentence incarceration and post-sentence imprisonment exceeds the maximum term allowable by the statute under which the individual was sentenced. Heier v. State, 727 P.2d 707, 709-10 (Wyo. 1986); Munden v. State, 698 P.2d 621, 627 (Wyo. 1985); Jones v. State, 602 P.2d 378 (Wyo. 1979). Appellant points out other courts have held that the denial of credit for presentence time served subjects an indigent to a different and more severe treatment than that suffered by a non-indigent, thereby violating his constitutional right to equal protection under the law. See Johnson v. Prast, 548 F.2d 699, 702 (7th Cir.1977); King v. Wyrick, 516 F.2d 321, 323 (8th Cir.1975); State v. Phelan, 100 Wash.2d 508, 671 P.2d 1212, 1215 (1983), applying intermediate level of scrutiny to denial of credit against discretionary minimum terms; Martin v. Leverette, 161 W. Va. 547, 244 S.E.2d 39, 42 (1978), anchoring the right to the Equal Protection Clause of the West Virginia Constitution; and Annotation, Right to Credit for Time Spent in Custody Prior to Trial or Sentence, 77 A.L.R.3d 182 (1977). In dicta, we have implicitly expressed some agreement with this view. [5] Trial courts have a broad discretion to determine the appropriate length and conditions of imprisonment in a variety of situations. We recognize that within the statutory limits, trial courts may give consideration to a wide range of factors relevant to their sentencing decisions, and that few of those factors are capable of precise quantification when translated into the final imposition of the term for incarceration. This court refrains from disturbing sentencing decisions absent a clear abuse of discretion. Munden, 698 P.2d at 626; Jones, 602 P.2d at 380; Williams v. Illinois, 399 U.S. 235, 241-43, 90 S.Ct. 2018, 2022-23, 26 L.Ed.2d 586 (1970). When an indigent is incarcerated for a period, including the presentence time, which exceeds the maximum penalty for his offense, it is unquestionable that he has been punished more severely than one who could afford to obtain presentence release. The sentencing court in such an instance, by violating a defendant's right to equal protection, has clearly abused its discretion. Matthews v. Dees, 579 F.2d 929, 931 (5th Cir.1978). However, when a sentence is within the statutory range, it is difficult to say which factors formed the basis for the sentencing court's decision to determine whether credit was actually given for time served. There is division among the appellate courts that have encountered this difficulty as to whether they should presume that sentencing courts adhered to their constitutional duties and granted such credit. Godbold v. Wilson, 518 F. Supp. 1265, 1267 n. 5 (D.Colo. 1981). Appellant urges us to follow the lead of those courts who refuse to grant that presumption on review. [6] We find no mandated advantage in selection of this application. For example, the court in Godbold, pursuant to a federal habeas corpus petition, declared that sentencing courts would be required to explicitly credit defendants with presentence time served when that incarceration occurred solely because of indigence. Absent an express reference to the credit in the sentencing orders, that court indicated it would find such sentences unconstitutional. That court freely admitted, however, that the sentencing court could, through the legitimate exercise of its discretionary power, merely increase sentences so as to avoid the intended effect of the decision. Id. at 1269. We anticipate that trial courts adhere to constitutionally limiting criteria and apply the presumption of compliance on an appeal challenging length of sentence. In constitutional perspective, the sentencing court was required separately to credit presentence time served to the minimum term of appellant's sentence. This is the mandatory, not discretional issue of confinement credit application.