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Superior Court Rules On RRRI Sentence in Drug Case
Burton A. Rose, Esq.
On May 05, 2010, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania decided the case of Com. v. Hansley, 2010 WL 1781923, No. 845 MDA 2009, an appeal from a judgment of sentence of the Court of Common Pleas of Lebanon County. The case was before Judges BENDER, PANELLA and LAZARUS. Judge Bender wrote the Opinion for the Panel.
This was a Commonwealth appeal asking the Court to consider whether a trial court was authorized by law to impose a conditional minimum sentence (RRRI minimum), pursuant to the Recidivism Risk Reduction Incentive Act, 61 Pa.C.S. § 4501-4512, upon a defendant convicted of Possession With Intent to Deliver, 35 P.S. § 780-113(A)(30), and sentenced to mandatory minimum terms of incarceration pursuant to 18 Pa.C.S. §§ 6317 and 7508.
The Panel concluded that the court is so empowered by the RRRIA and must specify an RRRI minimum sentence upon a determination that the defendant is statutorily eligible. In addition, the Court held that a defendant who meets all other criteria for eligibility under the RRRIA is not rendered ineligible by the imposition of a mandatory minimum sentence under 18 Pa.C.S. § 7508 unless that sentence was imposed under subsections (a)(1)(iii), (2)(iii), (3)(iii), (4)(iii), (7)(iii), or 8(iii). See 61 Pa.C.S. § 4503(1)-(6) (disqualifying certain offenders from eligibility).
The Commonwealth argued at sentencing that, having given notice of its intent to seek imposition of all applicable mandatory minimum sentences, these statutory provisions “trumped” any authority under the RRRIA to impose a conditional minimum sentence. The sentencing court imposed the mandatory minimum prison term of one to two years (for a drug-free school zone violation) and three to six years (PWID cocaine, greater than ten grams but less than one hundred grams), both sentences to be served concurrently, but found Hansley eligible for participation in a “program plan” under the RRRIA, and imposed an RRRI minimum sentence of 18 months and 27 months on those two counts.
Judge Bender ruled that under 61 Pa.C.S. § 4503, offenders sentenced under § 7508(a)(3)(i), (ii), remain eligible for RRRI program placement provided they qualify with the remaining elements of 61 Pa .C.S. § 4503(6), defining “eligible offenders”. The Court noted that the RRRIA minimum imposed by the trial court serves only as a demarcation in time after which the offender may, at the discretion of the Parole Board, be released on parole; thus the offender may yet be incarcerated for the entire mandatory minimum sentence originally imposed by the court.
