Court Opinion

ID: 9683085
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 13:22:14.09236+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:44.634097
License: Public Domain

PAGE, Justice
(concurring).
I agree with the majority’s holding that a Minnesota prison inmate has a constitutionally protected interest in a specific supervised release date. But I write separately to comment on the dissent’s conclusion that an inmate has no such right under Minnesota’s statutes. In my view, the dissent’s analysis is flawed.
The object of statutory construction is “to ascertain and effectuate the intention of the legislature.” Minn.Stat. § 645.16 (2004). As such, we must construe statutes as a whole and give meanings to words and sentences in light of their context. Christensen v. Hennepin Transp. Co., Inc., 215 Minn. 394, 409, 10 N.W.2d 406, 415 (1943). When the words of a statute are clear and free from all ambiguity, further construction is neither necessary nor permitted. Owens ex rel. Owens v. Water Gremlin Co., 605 N.W.2d 733, 736 (Minn.2000). A statute’s words and phrases are to be “construed according to rules of grammar and according to their common and approved usage.” Minn.Stat. § 645.08(1) (2004).
Under Minn.Stat. § 244.101, subd. 1 (2004), an inmate must serve “a specified minimum term of imprisonment that is equal to two-thirds of the executed sentence,” and a specified maximum supervised release term “subject to the provisions of section 244.05, subdivision lb.” Under Minn.Stat. § 244.05, subd. 1b (2004), for felony offenses committed on or after August 1, 1993, every inmate sentenced to prison “shall serve a supervised release term upon completion of the inmate’s term of imprisonment and any disciplinary confinement period imposed by the commissioner” due to violation of disciplinary rules or failure to participate in a required rehabilitation program. (Emphasis added.) Read together, the language of section 244.101, subdivision 1, and section 244.05, subdivision lb, is clear and free from ambiguity. An inmate, such as Carrillo, who is sentenced for a felony offense that occurred on or after August 1, 1993, has a right to be placed on supervised release after serving two-thirds of the executed sentence plus any disciplinary confinement period properly imposed by the Commissioner of Corrections. Although the inmate has no right to be placed on supervised release on a date certain, he or she does have a liberty *778interest in being released pursuant to the terms of the statutory scheme. As the inmate is entitled to supervised release after serving two-thirds of the executed sentence plus any properly imposed disciplinary confinement period, so too is the Commissioner of Corrections obligated to place the inmate on supervised release after that time period. Any failure to do so would be a due process violation because the language of the statute creates a mandatory supervised release requirement. See State v. Calmes, 632 N.W.2d 641, 645, 648 (Minn.2001) (“[D]ue process may be violated when a defendant’s sentence is enhanced after the defendant has developed a crystallized expectation of finality in the earlier sentence.”); State v. Humes, 581 N.W.2d 317, 319 (Minn.1998) (concluding that the use of the word “shall” in the conditional release term statute made the conditional release term mandatory).
The dissent reads section 244.101, subdivision 1, and section 244.05, subdivision lb, in conjunction with section 244.101, subdivision 2 (2004), to conclude, “[t]hese provisions clearly demonstrate that there is no statutory right to a specified period of supervised release.” That conclusion is wrong. Minnesota Statutes § 244.101, subdivision 2, provides:
When a court pronounces an executed sentence under this section, it shall explain: (1) the total length of the executed sentence; (2) the amount of time the defendant will serve in prison; and (3) the amount of time the defendant will serve on supervised release, assuming the defendant commits no disciplinary offense in prison that results in the imposition of a disciplinary confinement period. The court shall also explain that the amount of time the defendant actually serves in prison may be extended by the commissioner if the defendant commits any disciplinary offenses in prison and that this extension could result in the defendant’s serving the entire executed sentence in prison.
(Emphasis added.) Thus, section 244.101, subdivision 2, merely confirms the application of section 244.05, subdivision lb, and requires the sentencing court to explain to the defendant the requirements of section 244.05, subdivision lb. In support of its conclusion, the dissent cites to section 244.101, subdivision 3 (2004), which provides that “[notwithstanding the court’s explanation of the potential length of the defendant’s supervised release term, the court’s explanation creates no right of a defendant to any specific, minimum length of a supervised term.” (Emphasis added.) Construing subdivision 3 in the context of section 244.101, it is clear that subdivision 3 only provides that the court’s explanation does not create a right to a specific minimum length of a supervised release term. Subdivision 3 places no limits on the requirements of section 244.05, subdivision lb. Section 244.101, subdivision 3, likely reflects the legislature’s concern that any error in a sentencing court’s explanation should not lead a defendant to claim a right to a particular supervised release term. An example, by way of analogy, illustrates this point. We have held that when a defendant is convicted of a crime that carries with it a conditional release term and the sentencing court fails to impose the conditional release term at the sentencing hearing, the conditional release is nonetheless mandatory and nonwaiva-ble.1 See Calmes, 632 N.W.2d at 649. *779Section 244.101, subdivision 3, like our holding in Calmes, makes it clear that an error by the sentencing court in explaining the minimum period of incarceration and the maximum period of supervised release creates no right in the defendant to any specific minimum length of supervised release.
Because section 244.05, subdivision lb, creates a liberty interest in being released after an inmate has served the term of imprisonment plus any disciplinary confinement period properly imposed by the commissioner, Carrillo is entitled to review of the propriety of the imposed discipline.

. We have recognized that the defendant has the right to the benefit of the bargain of his or her plea agreement. See, e.g., State v. Wukawitz, 662 N.W.2d 517, 520, 522 (Minn.2003) (holding that where imposition of mandatory conditional release term would violate a plea agreement and a plea withdrawal would unduly prejudice the state, the district court has *779discretion to impose a conditional release term shorter than the statutory minimum); State v. Jumping Eagle, 620 N.W.2d 42, 45 (Minn.2000). This is so because "if a guilty plea is induced by a government promise, such a promise must be fulfilled or due process is violated.” Wukawitz, 662 N.W.2d at 522. As a result, under certain circumstances, the terms of the mandatory and non-waivable conditional release may not be imposed. The defendant’s right to the benefit of the plea bargain derives from the defendant’s right to due process, and not from some right created by the court’s explanation of the potential length of the defendant’s sentence.