State of Minnesota, ex rel., Branden Lee Pollard v. Tom Roy, Commissioner of Corrections , 2016 Minn. App. LEXIS 22 ( 2016 )


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  •                                STATE OF MINNESOTA
    IN COURT OF APPEALS
    A15-1580
    State of Minnesota, ex rel.,
    Branden Lee Pollard, petitioner,
    Appellant,
    vs.
    Tom Roy,
    Commissioner of Corrections,
    Respondent.
    Filed April 11, 2016
    Affirmed
    Jesson, Judge
    Anoka County District Court
    File No. 02-CV-15-2514
    Cathryn Middlebrook, Chief Appellate Public Defender, Kathryn J. Lockwood, Assistant
    Public Defender, St. Paul, Minnesota (for appellant)
    Rachel E. Bell, Kelly S. Kemp, Lisa Cherie Netzer, Assistant Attorneys General, St. Paul,
    Minnesota (for respondent)
    Considered and decided by Kirk, Presiding Judge; Peterson, Judge; and Jesson,
    Judge.
    SYLLABUS
    Under 
    Minn. Stat. § 609.3455
    , subd. 6 (Supp. 2005), an offender’s conditional-
    release term is not reduced by the time that the offender is incarcerated during the
    supervised-release term.
    OPINION
    JESSON, Judge
    Appellant challenges the district court’s decision denying his petition for a writ of
    habeas corpus, arguing that he is entitled to have his ten-year conditional-release term
    reduced by the final one-third of his executed sentence. Appellant served his entire
    executed sentence in prison pursuant to a concurrent sentence. Because we conclude that,
    under section 609.3455, subdivision 6, time “served on supervised release” refers to time
    spent by the offender in the community, we affirm.
    FACTS
    On February 1, 2008, appellant Branden Lee Pollard was sentenced to 60 months in
    prison for first-degree aggravated robbery.      While Pollard was incarcerated for the
    aggravated-robbery offense, DNA evidence connected him to a June 2006 sexual assault.
    Pollard was charged with two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.            On
    August 17, 2010, Pollard was convicted on one of these counts and sentenced to a 28-
    month prison term.      The district court ordered the 28-month prison term served
    concurrently with the aggravated-robbery sentence, and, because Pollard had been in prison
    for the aggravated-robbery offense since February 1, 2008, the district court awarded him
    credit for 28 months served. Pollard’s sentence for the criminal-sexual conduct offense
    also included a ten-year term of conditional release.
    The Minnesota Department of Corrections (the DOC) determined that Pollard’s 28-
    month executed sentence began April 28, 2008 and ended August 17, 2010. The DOC also
    determined that Pollard’s conditional-release term began to run the day after expiration of
    2
    his executed sentence. The DOC therefore informed Pollard that his conditional-release
    term would expire on August 17, 2020.1
    Pollard filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Pollard claimed that the DOC
    denied him credit against his conditional-release term for time served on supervised
    release. The district court denied the petition. This appeal follows.
    ISSUE
    Is Pollard entitled to credit against his conditional-release term for a supervised-
    release term he served in prison while incarcerated on a concurrent sentence?
    ANALYSIS
    Minnesota law divides an offender’s total “executed sentence” into two parts: “(1) a
    specified minimum term of imprisonment that is equal to two-thirds of the executed
    sentence; and (2) a specified maximum supervised release term that is equal to one-third
    of the executed sentence.” 
    Minn. Stat. § 244.101
    , subd. 1 (2004). An offender who does
    not commit any disciplinary offenses while in prison and complies with the terms of
    supervised release generally will serve the entire supervised-release term — final one-third
    of the sentence — in the community. 
    Id.,
     subd. 2 (2004); 
    Minn. Stat. § 244.05
     (2004). But
    if the offender commits disciplinary offenses while in prison, the amount of time served in
    custody may be extended up to the entire length of the executed sentence. Minn. Stat.
    1
    The DOC originally determined that Pollard’s supervised-release and conditional-release
    term ran concurrently, and calculated his conditional-release term to expire on
    November 6, 2019. This calculation was amended to comply with decisions of this court
    holding that supervised release and conditional release are served consecutively. See State
    ex rel. Peterson v. Fabian, 
    784 N.W.2d 843
     (Minn. App. 2010).
    3
    §§ 244.101, subd. 2, .05, subd. 1b. An offender who is released into the community on
    supervised release and violates the terms of that release also may be returned to prison for
    up to the entire remaining length of the executed sentence. 
    Minn. Stat. § 244.05
    , subd. 3.
    For certain offenders, including sex offenders, a term of conditional release follows
    the executed sentence. 
    Minn. Stat. § 609.3455
    , subd. 6 (Supp. 2005), requires that, “after
    the offender has completed the sentence imposed, the commissioner shall place the
    offender on conditional release for ten years, minus the time the offender served on
    supervised release.” (Emphasis added.)
    Pollard’s situation does not fit neatly into this framework because he was serving
    concurrent sentences, one of which (for criminal sexual conduct) was completed in total
    before the end of his term of imprisonment for the aggravated-robbery sentence. But with
    the criminal sexual conduct sentence came a ten-year conditional-release term. When the
    DOC determined that the 9.3 months Pollard had already served in prison (one-third of the
    28 months of jail credit the district court granted him on the criminal-sexual-conduct
    sentence) would not be subtracted from the ten-year conditional-release term, Pollard filed
    a petition for habeas corpus in Anoka County district court requesting that the district court
    correct the conditional-release term.
    The district court denied the petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The district court
    concluded that, because Pollard was in prison during the final one-third of his sentence, he
    was not serving “on supervised release” and was not entitled to any credit against his ten-
    year conditional-release term. Accordingly, the district court concluded that the DOC
    4
    properly amended Pollard’s conditional-release expiration date from November 6, 2019 to
    August 17, 2020.
    Judicial review of a DOC administrative sentencing decision is appropriately sought
    through a writ of habeas corpus, State v. Schnagl, 
    859 N.W.2d 297
    , 304 (Minn. 2015), as
    Pollard petitions for here. While Pollard bears the burden of showing the illegality of his
    detention, Breeding v. Swenson, 
    240 Minn. 93
    , 97, 
    60 N.W.2d 4
    , 7 (1953), this court
    reviews the district court’s interpretation and application of a statute de novo. Rud v.
    Fabian, 
    743 N.W.2d 295
    , 298 (Minn. App. 2007); see also State ex rel. Guth v. Fabian,
    
    716 N.W.2d 23
    , 26 (Minn. App. 2006) (stating that in a habeas proceeding “[q]uestions of
    law . . . are subject to de novo review”), review denied (Minn. Aug. 15, 2006).
    
    Minn. Stat. § 609.3455
    , subd. 6, directs that sex offenders shall serve a term of
    conditional release following their executed sentence, but that the ten-year term of that
    release is “minus the time the offender served on supervised release.” Our de novo review
    begins with the plain language of the statute to see if it clearly and unambiguously dictates
    the result in this case. 
    Minn. Stat. § 645.16
     (2014). Pollard argues that the statutory
    construction set forth in State v. Koperski, 
    611 N.W.2d 569
     (Minn. App. 2000), is correct
    and binding on this court. In Koperski, we held that the conditional-release term must be
    served concurrently with the supervised-release term regardless of where the offender
    spends his or her entire executed sentence. 
    Id. at 572
    . Pollard further argues that, because
    he was never placed on disciplinary confinement and never had his supervised release
    revoked, he must have been on supervised release for the entire “maximum supervised
    release term.” The DOC asserts that a close reading of statutory language and subsequent
    5
    caselaw dictates a different interpretation, which is embodied in the DOC’s calculation of
    Pollard’s conditional-release term. Under this reading, the conditional-release term is not
    reduced by the time an offender is incarcerated during the supervised-release term.
    We conclude that the term “minus the time . . . served on supervised release” is
    ambiguous as applied to Pollard. It does not directly address the situation where an inmate
    is serving concurrent sentences and, as a result, is not eligible to serve any of the “maximum
    supervised release” time in the community. This ambiguity is pointed out by Pollard, who
    asks: if a person in prison during their supervised-release term is not serving supervised-
    release time, then what is he or she serving? In this circumstance time “served on
    supervised release” could reasonably be read to mean either the final one-third of Pollard’s
    executed sentence, which was served in prison due to a concurrent sentence, or only time
    he was under supervision in the community after release from prison, which is no portion
    of his sentence.
    Because the statute is open to two reasonable interpretations, we turn to ascertaining
    the intention of the legislature. In order to ascertain the legislative intent, we consider,
    among other things, other laws on the same subject, the purpose of the law, the
    consequences of a particular interpretation, and administrative and legislative
    interpretations of the statute. 
    Minn. Stat. § 645.16
    . We must presume that the legislature
    did not intend an absurd result and intends the entire statute to be effective and certain.
    
    Minn. Stat. § 645.17
     (2014).
    To undertake this analysis, we start with the language of the broader statutory
    scheme in effect at the time of Pollard’s 2006 criminal-sexual-conduct offense. Next, we
    6
    review a subsequent clarification of the sentencing statute that directly relates to legislative
    intent regarding conditional release. We then consider an administrative interpretation of
    the term “supervised release” and the overall purpose of conditional and supervised release.
    Finally, we consider our decision in Koperski, which addressed the interplay between
    conditional and supervised release in a very similar factual situation.
    Broader Statutory Scheme
    To determine the meaning of time “served on supervised release” for purposes of
    subtracting time from the ten-year conditional-release period, we first look at the definition
    and application of “supervised release.” As stated above, 
    Minn. Stat. § 244.101
     provides
    that the final “one-third of the executed sentence” is the “maximum supervised release
    term.” 
    Minn. Stat. § 244.101
    , subd. 1. It further provides that the court must explain “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.” 
    Id.,
     subd 2. It cautions, however, that “the court’s explanation
    creates no right of a defendant to any specific, minimum length of a supervised release
    term.” 
    Id.,
     subd. 3 (2004). Finally, 
    Minn. Stat. § 244.01
    , subd. 7 (2004), defines
    “[s]upervised release” as “the release of an inmate pursuant to section 244.05.” (Emphasis
    added.) When read together with section 609.3455, subdivision 6, these statutes indicate
    that the term time “served on supervised release,” refers to a period after the offender has
    been released from prison. The final one-third of the offender’s sentence is merely the
    “maximum” time an offender may serve “on supervised release,” and, while the offender
    will usually be released to serve this portion of his sentence in the community, he has no
    7
    right to serve any “specific, minimum length” of time on supervised release. 
    Minn. Stat. § 244.101
    , subds. 1, 3.
    In addition, 
    Minn. Stat. § 244.05
    , subd. 3, discusses sanctions for violations of
    supervised release. Possible sanctions include, “revok[ing] the inmate’s supervised release
    and reimprison[ing] the inmate for the appropriate period of time.” 
    Minn. Stat. § 244.05
    ,
    subd. 3. If an offender could be “on supervised release,” while in prison, this subdivision
    would have no meaning for that offender.            For example, an offender could not be
    “reimprison[ed]” for violating supervised release, if serving supervised release in prison.
    See 
    Minn. Stat. § 645.17
     (providing that “the legislature does not intend a result that is
    absurd, impossible of execution, or unreasonable” and that “the legislature intends the
    entire statute to be effective and certain”).
    Pollard essentially argues that, because he was never placed on “disciplinary
    confinement” as a result of a “disciplinary offense,” he must have been “on supervised
    release” for the entire final one-third of his executed sentence. Although section 244.05,
    subdivision 1b(a), provides that “[t]he amount of time the inmate serves on supervised
    release shall be equal in length to the amount of time remaining in the inmate’s executed
    sentence after the inmate has served the term of imprisonment and any disciplinary
    confinement period imposed by the commissioner,” we conclude that section 244.01,
    subdivision 7, clarifies this section by defining “supervised release” as the inmate’s actual
    “release” from prison “pursuant to section 244.05.” In other words, section 244.05 governs
    when an offender is placed on supervised release under normal circumstances, but section
    8
    244.01, subdivision 7, makes clear that an offender is not actually on supervised release
    until released from prison.
    Pollard also maintains that, after he served the first two-thirds of his sentence, he
    was no longer serving his term of imprisonment, and thus there was no portion of his
    sentence for him to be serving other than supervised release. Pollard is correct that the last
    one-third of an offender’s sentence is defined as the “maximum supervised release term”
    under 
    Minn. Stat. § 244.101
    , subd. 1. But the fact that an offender is in the “maximum
    supervised release term” portion of his sentence does not mean that he is “on supervised
    release” under section 609.3455, subdivision 6. Section 244.101, subdivision 1, makes
    clear that “[t]he amount of time the inmate actually serves in prison and on supervised
    release” is not defined by the “minimum term of imprisonment” and the “maximum
    supervised release term.” Accordingly, although the offender is always serving the
    “maximum supervised release term” during the final one-third of his sentence, the offender
    is not “on supervised release” until actually released from prison.
    The definition and application of supervised release in chapter 244 indicates that
    time “served on supervised release” does not include time served in prison. As stated in
    
    Minn. Stat. § 244.01
    , subd. 7, an offender is not on “supervised release” until released from
    prison.
    Legislative Clarification
    In 2013, the Minnesota legislature amended section 609.3455, subdivision 6. The
    amendment provides that “after the offender has been released from prison, the
    commissioner shall place the offender on conditional release for ten years.” 
    2013 Minn.
                                           9
    Laws, ch. 96, § 3, at 744 (emphasis added). The amendment removes the language “minus
    the time the offender served on supervised release.”2 Id. The legislature described this
    amendment as “clarifying when conditional release terms of certain offenders begin.” Id.,
    ch. 96, at 743. And, during a committee meeting on the bill, one of its authors stated that
    it effectuates what “was the legislative intent when this conditional release language was
    originally passed by the legislature.” Hearing on H.F. No. 709 Before the H. Comm. on
    Pub. Safety Fin. & Policy (Mar. 19, 2013) (statement of Rep. Johnson). Under the
    amendment, an offender begins serving both supervised and conditional release together at
    the time the offender is released from prison.3 Although we interpret the statute in effect
    at the time of Pollard’s 2006 criminal-sexual-conduct offense, we note that our
    interpretation is also consistent with the legislature’s later clarification. See State v.
    Edwards, 
    774 N.W.2d 596
    , 607 n.10 (Minn. 2009) (noting that, although the legislature’s
    clarification of a sentencing statute did not apply directly to this case because the crime
    was committed before the amendment’s effective date, the supreme court’s holding was
    “consistent with th[e] statutory clarification”).
    2
    In 2013, the legislature also amended 
    Minn. Stat. § 609.3455
    , subd. 8(c), to add the
    following language: “[a]n offender, while on supervised release, is not entitled to credit
    against the offender’s conditional release term for time served in confinement for a
    violation of release.” 2013 Minn. Laws, ch. 96, § 5, at 745.
    3
    The amendment was primarily passed to address this court’s decision in State ex rel.
    Peterson v. Fabian, 
    784 N.W.2d 843
    , which held that a term of conditional release runs
    consecutive to a term of supervised release. This created a situation where the DOC was
    required to release an offender at the end of his executed sentence, even though the offender
    had recently violated his supervised release and had remaining time to serve on conditional
    release. Peterson, 
    784 N.W.2d at 847
    .
    10
    Administrative Interpretation
    The legislature has authorized the DOC to adopt rules governing the procedures for
    granting and revoking conditional and supervised release. 
    Minn. Stat. §§ 243.05
    , subd. 2
    (2004), 244.05, subd. 2 (Supp. 2005). The DOC rules define “supervised release” as “that
    portion of a determinate sentence served by an inmate in the community under supervision
    and subject to prescribed rules.” 
    Minn. R. 2940
    .0100, subp. 31 (2005) (emphasis added).
    This administrative interpretation is consistent with our conclusion that time “served on
    supervised release” refers to a period after the offender’s actual release from prison.
    Pollard argues that it is not appropriate to rely on the DOC’s interpretation of the
    term “supervised release” because statutory interpretation is a legal issue that the DOC
    does not have the expertise to decide. But “an agency’s interpretation of the statutes it
    administers is entitled to deference and should be upheld, absent a finding that it is in
    conflict with the express purpose of the Act and the intention of the legislature.” Frieler
    v. Carlson Mktg. Grp., 
    751 N.W.2d 558
    , 567 (Minn. 2008) (quotation omitted); see also
    Green v. Whirlpool Corp., 
    389 N.W.2d 504
    , 506 (Minn. 1986) (stating that “administrative
    agencies may adopt regulations to implement or make specific the language of a statute”
    as long as they do not “adopt a conflicting rule”). The DOC’s rule is not in conflict with
    the purpose of 
    Minn. Stat. § 609.3455
    , subd. 6, or the general conditional-release and
    supervised-release statutory scheme. Furthermore, 
    Minn. Stat. § 645.16
     specifically allows
    11
    this court to consider “administrative interpretations” when interpreting an ambiguous
    statute.4
    Purpose of Supervised and Conditional Release
    In State v. Ward, we determined that “[t]he purpose of both supervised release and
    conditional release is to provide continuous supervision of a sex offender after release from
    prison.”5 
    847 N.W.2d 29
    , 33 (Minn. App. 2014), review granted and stayed (Minn.
    June 17, 2014), stay vacated and review denied (Minn. Mar. 17, 2015).6               We also
    concluded that “because the conditional-release term for a sex offender is a fixed . . . term,”
    it is apparent that a “purpose of conditional release is to maintain supervision of a sex
    offender for a minimum length of time.” 
    Id.
     The purposes of supervised and conditional
    release are met “[w]hen an offender spends time in the community on supervised release
    4
    Pollard also makes a separation-of-powers argument in his reply brief. This argument
    was not raised before or addressed by the district court. This argument also was not raised
    in Pollard’s principal brief or by the DOC. Accordingly, we do not address it here. See
    Minn. R. Civ. App. P. 128.02, subd. 3 (stating that “[t]he reply brief must be confined to
    new matter raised in the brief of the respondent”); State v. Gauster, 
    752 N.W.2d 496
    , 508
    (Minn. 2008) (stating that appellate courts “generally will not consider arguments raised
    for the first time on appeal”).
    5
    Ward dealt with a predecessor statute to 
    Minn. Stat. § 609.3455
    . 
    Id. at 32
    . While the
    statute requiring conditional release for sex offenders has been renumbered several times,
    the language reducing the conditional-release term by the “time the person [or offender]
    served on supervised release” was in effect beginning in 1993. See 1993 Minn. Laws ch.
    326, art. 9, § 9, at 2089 (adding conditional release to section 609.346, subdivision 5); 1998
    Minn. Laws ch. 367, art. 6, § 6, at 731 (renumbering conditional release provision as
    section 609.109, subdivision 7(a)); 2005 Minn. Laws ch. 136, art. 2, § 21, at 931
    (renumbering conditional-release provision as section 609.3455, subdivision 6, and
    increasing term to ten years).
    6
    We note that the supreme court recently granted review in State ex rel. Duncan v. Roy,
    No. A15-1349 (Minn. App. Nov. 9, 2015), review granted (Minn. Jan. 27, 2016), an
    unpublished decision of this court relying on Ward.
    12
    and the time is deducted from the offender’s conditional-release term.” Id. But these
    purposes are not met if the last one-third of an offender’s sentence is automatically
    deducted from the conditional-release term regardless of whether the offender served time
    in the community on supervised release. See id. (“Both purposes are not served if an
    offender on supervised release is returned to prison and the offender’s conditional release
    is reduced by the additional time spent in prison.”). Deducting time served in prison during
    an offender’s executed sentence violates the purposes of conditional release by reducing
    the total time the offender serves under supervision in the community to less than the full
    ten-year conditional-release term.
    After reviewing the broader statutory sentencing scheme, the 2013 legislative
    clarification, the DOC administrative interpretation, and the purposes of supervised and
    conditional release, we conclude that time “served on supervised release” refers to a time
    during the offender’s executed sentence after the offender is actually released from prison.
    State v. Koperski
    Our interpretation differs from that in State v. Koperski. Koperski was a 2000
    opinion holding that “[i]n sentencing for criminal sexual conduct, the conditional release
    period must be served concurrently with the supervised release period even if the defendant
    is in prison on another sentence for part of the conditional release period.” 
    611 N.W.2d at 569
    . Koperski followed a 1995 case, State v. Enger, which concluded that a conditional-
    release period must be reduced by the offender’s supervised-release period. 
    539 N.W.2d 13
    259, 264 (Minn. App. 1995), review denied (Minn. Dec. 20, 1995).7 Pollard argues that
    we must follow Koperski. The DOC argues that Koperski is no longer good law. While
    Koperski addressed the same statutory language at issue in this case and involved a similar
    fact scenario, we conclude that there are compelling reasons to depart from its holding.
    The doctrine of stare decisis “directs that we adhere to former decisions in order that
    there might be stability in the law.” Dow v. Lutheran High Sch. of Greater Minneapolis,
    
    702 N.W.2d 322
    , 330 (Minn. App. 2005) (quotation omitted). However, stare decisis “is
    not an inflexible rule of law but rather a policy of the law.” Johnson v. Chicago, B. & Q.
    R.R. Co., 
    243 Minn. 58
    , 68, 
    66 N.W.2d 763
    , 770 (1954). We will overrule our own
    precedent if provided with a compelling reason to do so. State v. Martin, 
    773 N.W.2d 89
    ,
    98 (Minn. 2009).
    Much has changed since Koperski.
    Three years after Koperski was decided, our supreme court stated that “the
    conditional release term cannot begin prior to the inmate’s release from prison.” State v.
    Wukawitz, 
    662 N.W.2d 517
    , 525 (Minn. 2003). The supreme court also concluded that the
    conditional-release term must be for a fixed “five or ten years, not more and not less.” 
    Id.
    Wukawitz dealt with the appropriate remedy when the imposition of a conditional-release
    7
    In Enger, the district court imposed a 29-month supervised-release term and, pursuant to
    statute, a five-year (60-month) conditional-release term. 
    Id. at 263
    . Interpreting the
    conditional-release statute, which provided “the person shall be placed on conditional
    release for five years, minus the time the person served on supervised release,” this court
    concluded that it must “reduce the 89 month period of supervised and conditional release
    to a total of 60 months (29 months supervised plus 31 months conditional).” 
    Id. at 263-64
    (quotation omitted).
    14
    term violates a plea agreement and did not directly address the matter at issue in Koperski.
    
    Id. at 529
    . However, the dicta in Wukawitz contradicts Koperski’s conclusion that,
    regardless of whether the offender is in prison, the conditional-release term and supervised-
    release term are served concurrently.
    In State ex rel. Peterson v. Fabian, this court interpreted language in a conditional-
    release statute and rejected Koperski’s conclusion that supervised release and conditional
    release must be served concurrently. 
    784 N.W.2d 843
    , 843, 847 (Minn. App. 2010).8 In
    doing so, we noted that “[t]his court has previously struggled with the difference between
    supervised release and conditional release in two published opinions,” and explicitly
    pointed to two underlying concerns with Koperski. 
    Id. at 847
    .
    In Koperski, citing Enger, this court stated that the sex-
    offender conditional-release statute and “Enger explicitly state
    that supervised release and conditional release periods run
    concurrently.” But, in Enger, this court did not use the term
    “concurrently” or hold that the two release terms must run
    concurrently. Rather, this court stated that the “conditional
    release period must be reduced by the supervised release
    period.” And the effective statute at that time did not use the
    term “concurrently”; rather, the statute, 
    Minn. Stat. § 609.109
    ,
    subd. 7(a) (1998), provided, like 
    Minn. Stat. § 609.3455
    ,
    subd. 6, in 2008, that “the person shall be placed on conditional
    release for ten years, minus the time the person served on
    supervised release.”
    8
    Although Peterson dealt with a different conditional-release statute than the one at issue
    in the instant case and in Koperski, the conditional-release statute at issue in Peterson
    similarly provided “that after the person has completed the sentence imposed, the
    commissioner of corrections shall place the person on conditional release for ten years.”
    
    Id. at 843
     (emphasis added) (quotation omitted). Based on this language, Peterson
    concluded that conditional release and supervised release must be served consecutively.
    
    Id. at 846
    .
    15
    
    Id.
     (citations omitted). Though Peterson did not deal directly with the subtraction of time
    served on supervised release from an offender’s conditional-release term, it interpreted the
    language “minus the time the offender served on supervised release” as merely directing
    “a court to credit against a conditional-release term a person’s time spent on supervised
    release.” 
    Id. at 846
    . Peterson further stated, “[s]uch credit is consistent with public-policy
    considerations that favor a person’s success on supervised release.” 
    Id.
     Peterson undercuts
    the rationale underlying Koperski, notes contradictions with that opinion, and indicates that
    time “served on supervised release” refers to time spent in the community after release
    from prison.
    The 2013 amendment also casts doubt on Koperski.               As stated above, the
    amendment demonstrates that the legislature never intended an offender’s conditional-
    release term to be served while the offender is in prison on a concurrent sentence. 9 See
    2013 Minn. Laws ch. 96, § 3, at 744.
    Finally, Koperski is at odds with our understanding of the purpose of supervised and
    conditional release as stated in Ward. As Ward held, “the legislature intended conditional
    release to serve the purpose of maintaining supervision of a sex offender for a fixed period
    after the offender leaves prison and returns to the community.” 847 N.W.2d at 34.
    9
    Because the term of imprisonment for Pollard’s aggravated-robbery offense did not end
    until December 25, 2010, regardless of whether the final one-third of Pollard’s executed
    sentence is subtracted from his conditional-release term, he will have served a portion of
    his conditional-release term for the criminal sexual-conduct offense while in prison on the
    aggravated-robbery offense. This was also the case in Koperski, 
    611 N.W.2d at 573
    . This
    issue is not before us, and we do not address it. Our decision is limited to whether time
    “served on supervised release” as stated in 
    Minn. Stat. § 609.3455
    , subd. 6, includes time
    served in prison during an offender’s executed sentence.
    16
    Automatically deducting the final one-third of an offender’s executed sentence from his
    conditional-release term, regardless of whether the offender serves that time in the
    community or in prison, contravenes the legislature’s intention.
    In light of the above, Koperski no longer controls the outcome of this case. We
    conclude that 
    Minn. Stat. § 609.3455
    , subd. 6, does not entitle an offender to a reduction
    of his conditional-release term for time “served on supervised release” unless the offender
    is actually released from prison.
    DECISION
    Because Pollard served his entire executed sentence in prison, he did not serve time
    “on supervised release” under 
    Minn. Stat. § 609.3455
    , subd. 6, and is not entitled to have
    the “maximum supervised release” portion of his executed sentence credited against his
    conditional-release term.
    Affirmed.
    17
    

Document Info

Docket Number: A15-1580

Citation Numbers: 878 N.W.2d 341, 2016 WL 1397226, 2016 Minn. App. LEXIS 22

Judges: Kirk, Peterson, Jesson

Filed Date: 4/11/2016

Precedential Status: Precedential

Modified Date: 10/19/2024