California v. Morales
Annotate this CaseIn March 2014, defendant pleaded guilty to felony possession of a controlled substance. In April 2014, he was sentenced to 16 months in state prison. In August 2014, he was released to postrelease community supervision (PRCS) for a period of three years. In November 2014, defendant filed a petition to have his sentence recalled and to have his felony conviction reclassified as a misdemeanor. The court recalled his sentence, imposed a jail sentence of time served, and imposed one year of parole. In 2014 California voters passed Proposition 47, which reclassified certain offenses from felonies to misdemeanors. Proposition 47 also enacted a procedure whereby a defendant who suffered a felony conviction for one of the reclassified offenses could petition to have the conviction redesignated a misdemeanor. If the defendant was still serving a sentence, the defendant could have the sentence recalled and be given a misdemeanor sentence instead. Defendants who were resentenced are subject to one year of parole unless the court, in its discretion, waived the parole requirement. On appeal of his convictions, defendant argued he was not still serving a sentence and thus the court had no authority to impose parole, but could only redesignate the conviction from a felony to a misdemeanor. In the alternative, defendant argued his excess custody credits should have been counted against his parole time. The Court of Appeal disagreed with his first contention and concluded he was still serving his sentence when he petitioned to recall the felony conviction. However, the Court agreed he was entitled to credit his excess custody time against his parole. Furthermore, the Court agreed with defendant’s contention that he was entitled to have excess custody days credited against his fines. The case was remanded for a recalculation of his parole period and fines.
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