Should An Individual Be Given Duplicate Credit for the Second Component of His Sentence ?

In Commonwealth v. Bowser, 2001 PA Super 271, 783 A.2d 348 (Pa. Super. 2001), petition for allowance of appeal denied, 568 Pa. 733, 798 A.2d 1286 (2002), Bowser pled guilty to receiving stolen property. He was sentenced to serve six to twenty-three months with a consecutive three year period of probation. At the time of the sentencing, Bowser had already served eleven months and nineteen days, so he was paroled forthwith. Approximately four years later, the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County revoked Bowser's probation due to a new criminal conviction and imposed a sentence of one to three years. Bowser moved for time credit and requested that he be given credit on the sentence of one to three years for the eleven months and nineteen days that he was incarcerated on the original sentence of six to twenty-three months. The motion was denied. Bowser, 783 A.2d at 349. Before the Superior Court, Bowser again raised the issue that he should receive credit for the eleven months and nineteen days that he served on his original sentences. The Superior Court determined: Having received credit for the time in jail on the first component of the sentence, appellant Bowser did not spend the last half of the 23-month incarcerative portion of the sentence in jail. Probation began after that credit. Credit has been given once; had no credit been given he would not have been paroled in August 1994, and his probation would not have begun for some months thereafter. We see no reason to award duplicate credit in the second component of the sentence. Williams does not control our case. Appellant's Bowser revocation sentence (one to three years), combined with the time to which he has previously been sentenced (six to 23 months), does not equal the maximum amount of time to which he can be sentenced (seven years). Accordingly, appellant's Bowser sentence is not illegal and Williams does not apply. Bowser, 783 A.2d at 350. Judge Olszewski dissented and agreed with Bowser that he should receive credit for the entire period he already served. Bowser, 783 A.2d at 351-352.