State v. Thomas W. Jackson, 233 Wis.2d 231, 607 N.W.2d 338 (Ct. App. 2000)
For Jackson: Martha K. Askins, SPD, Madison Appellate
Issue: Whether a defendant is entitled to sentence credit on each consecutive sentence.
Holding: Credit is allotted only toward the first of consecutive sentences.
While on probation in Fond du Lac, Jackson was arrested on new charges in Dodge, where he was held on both the new charges and a probation hold. He was convicted and sentenced on the Dodge case, and received sentence credit from the date of arrest (and probation hold). He was then convicted on the Fond du Lac case, and got probation with a withheld sentence. He was later revoked and sentenced, by which time he’d already discharged the Dodge sentence. The question is whether he’s entitled to credit in the Fond du Lac case for time spent (and credit already received) before revocation in the Dodge case. The court says no. The issue was reserved by State v. Beets, 124 Wis. 2d 372, 378 n.5, 369 N.W.2d 382 (1985), and is controlled by the rationale of State v. Boettcher, 144 Wis. 2d 86, 423 N.W.2d 533 (1988), which holds that credit can’t be given to more than one of consecutively imposed sentences. Jackson’s Fond du Lac sentences were not made explicitly consecutive, but the court deems them to be consecutive in effect, because the Dodge sentence had been completed at the time of Fond du Lac sentencing. Because he received full credit for the time at issue in the Dodge case, awarding this credit to the Fond du Lac case would amount to impermissible “dual credit for the same custody.”
