Court Opinion

ID: 9565518
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:23:04.554625+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:43.641415
License: Public Domain

BURNETT, Judge,
specially concurring.
I join in the Court’s opinion but I write separately to note an apparent conflict between two statutes governing probation, I.C. §§ 19-2601(7) and 20-222. Idaho Code § 19-2601 authorizes a court to place a defendant on probation when “execution of the judgment” has been suspended under I.C. § 19-2601(2), or when judgment has been withheld pursuant to I.C. § 19-2601(3). When the crime is a felony, I.C. § 19-2601(5) requires probation to be administered by the Board of Correction unless the court otherwise directs. Idaho Code § 19-2601(7) provides that the term of probation in a felony case “may be for a period not more than the maximum period for which the defendant might have been imprisoned.” In contrast, I.C. § 20-222, part of a statutory scheme relating to the Board of Correction, provides that a “period of probation or suspension of sentence ... shall not exceed five (5) years, except in cases in which the defendant is charged with failure to provide subsistence to his dependents.”
In the present case, the district court entered a judgment of conviction, suspend*967ed a sentence of “three years,” and placed the defendant on probation for a single period of “nine years” under the administration of the Board of Correction. The nine-year term apparently was designed to accommodate the time needed for payment of restitution. Nine years of probation are permissible under I.C. § 19-2601(7) because the defendant “might have been imprisoned” for consecutive terms of three years each on the three counts to which he pled guilty. See I.C. § 30-1443. But a nine-year term conflicts with the five-year maximum specified in I.C. § 20-222.
This conflict arguably would not exist where a court withholds judgment rather than entering judgment and suspending the sentence. Idaho Code § 19-2601 embraces both alternatives, while I.C. § 20-222 contains no mention of withheld judgments. However, the judge in this case chose to enter a judgment and to suspend the sentence, thus framing a potential issue of statutory conflict.
Because the issue has not been raised on appeal, it would be inappropriate for our Court, sua sponte, to undertake a reconciliation of the statutes or, if they cannot be reconciled, to declare which of them is controlling: However, to prevent uncertainty in future cases, I urge our Legislature, at its next session, to examine this apparent conflict and to consider enacting a unified statute on probation.