Fenton v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole

Fenton v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, 110 Pa. Commw. 320, 532 A.2d 1223 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1987), involved a challenge to the admissibility of reports from a receiving state and whether those reports constituted substantial evidence to revoke parole. In that case, parolee's Pennsylvania parole was being supervised by the New York parole authorities. The parolee was later arrested in Florida and returned to Pennsylvania where he was recommitted based on the New York "Cooperation Violation of Parole Report" (report) to serve backtime for technical violations of his parole conditions. Id. at 1225. He challenged the recommitment on the grounds that he was improperly denied the right to confront the witnesses who prepared the report which was submitted into evidence at his revocation hearing. Because the report was sent to Pennsylvania under the Interstate Corrections Compact, we held that it qualified as a business record and was properly admitted into evidence. In Fenton, the Court further noted: "A purpose of the Interstate Corrections Compact is to afford parolees the opportunity to have their parole supervised by a state other than the paroling state. Accordingly, the reports of a supervising state, if properly signed and certified, must be given due weight in order for the Interstate Corrections Compact to have any effect." Id. at 1226.