Court Opinion

ID: 9720911
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:44:34.996631+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:22.204341
License: Public Domain

McCown, J.,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur generally with the holdings of the majority opinion, but I dissent from that portion of the opinion which impliedly sanctions the disallowance of any credit for time spent in jail awaiting sentence against the maximum 90-day jail confinement time authorized to be imposed in a sentence of probation.
In this case the sentence of probation specifically provided, as a condition of probation, that the defendant was to be confined in the Holt County jail for a period of 90 days, “with no credit for past time spent in said Holt County Jail.” The record reflects that the defendant had spent 43 days in the county jail before he was released on bail on the charges involved here. By denying any credit for jail time, the District Court has imposed a period of 133 days imprisonment in the county jail as a condition of probation.
There can be no doubt that, in the absence of statute, the court has no power to impose any period of imprisonment as a condition of probation. State v. Nuss, 190 Neb. 755, 212 N. W. 2d 565 (1973). A statute authorizing imprisonment as a condition of probation was adopted in Nebraska in 1975. Section 29-2262, R. R. S. 1943, provides that as a condition of *790a sentence of probation in any case, the court may require the offender to be confined in the county jail for “not to exceed 90 days.”
This court has held that where the maximum term of a sentence of imprisonment is the statutory maximum for the offense, credit for jail time previously served must be given. See State v. Blazek, 199 Neb. 466, 259 N. W. 2d 914. Under a sentence of probation for any offense, misdemeanor or felony, the statutory maximum period of confinement that may be imposed as a condition of probation is 90 days. Reasonable concepts of justice require that credit for jail time previously served must be given whenever the statutory maximum period of confinement is imposed as a condition on any sentence of probation.
In the case now before us, any defendant who had not been confined in jail for failure to furnish bail prior to trial and sentencing could not be required to serve more than 90 days in jail under any sentence of probation, including the one actually pronounced. The defendant here, however, will be required to serve 133 days in jail under the sentence now approved by this court simply because he could not raise bail for a period of 43 days. To require a defendant who is poor to spend more days, weeks, or months in jail than a rich defendant, who receives an identical sentence for the identical crime, simply because the defendant who is poor cannot raise the money for bail, constitutes rank injustice under any civilized standard of measurement. To sanction such sentencing is contrary to the fundamental concepts of even-handed justice. The sentence of probation here should be modified by granting credit of 43 days for time spent in jail awaiting sentencing.