Broughton

Penal Code section 1381.5 requires the district attorney to bring a defendant imprisoned in a federal correctional institution to trial or for sentencing in state criminal proceedings within 90 days after receiving an *311 assent from an authorized federal official for the release of the defendant from federal custody for that purpose. If the defendant is not brought to trial or for sentencing as required by section 1381.5, 1 the trial court must, on motion, “dismiss the action.”

Although as a formal matter, if the trial court at a sentencing hearing suspends imposition of sentence and places the defendant on probation, the defendant has not yet been sentenced, we hold section 1381.5 applies only to defendants who have not been tried or afforded an initial sentencing hearing following conviction, not probationers awaiting a probation revocation hearing. Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s denial of Katherine M. Broughton’s motion to dismiss the criminal actions against her notwithstanding the district attorney’s failure to comply with the procedural requirements of section 1381.5 following Broughton’s demand for a “speedy trial” of her probation revocation…

I respectfully dissent.

I first want to compliment the majority for a sophisticated, indeed intricate, opinion explaining why the Legislature did not mean what it said in the statute at issue. One of the interesting and also confounding attributes of the many “canons” of legislative interpretation is that they often are in conflict and can be used to justify divergent interpretations of a given statute or statutory scheme. In this case, the majority fires a full battery of such canons aimed at demolishing the “literal” language the Legislature used to define who was entitled to the benefit of Penal Code section 1381.5. Nonetheless, I am persuaded the prior courts got it right, albeit in dictum. 1 In my view, section 1381.5 does apply to California probationers who are in custody as federal prisoners.

The issue is rather simple. Does the clause “any criminal proceeding wherein the defendant remains to be sentenced” 2 include probationers who have yet to receive a term of confinement for an alleged probation violation? That is, has someone who received probation been “sentenced” or is she only sentenced when the court finds a violation of probation and imposes a term of…

Penal Code section 1381.5. requires the district attorney to bring a defendant imprisoned in a federal correctional institution to trial or for sentencing in state criminal proceedings within 90 days after receiving an assent from an authorized federal official for the release of the defendant from federal custody for that purpose. If the defendant is not brought to trial or for sentencing as required by section 1381.5, [1] the trial court must, on motion, "dismiss the action."

Although as a formal matter, if the trial court at a sentencing hearing suspends imposition of sentence and places the defendant on probation, the defendant has not yet been sentenced, we hold section 1381.5 applies only to defendants who have not been tried or afforded an initial sentencing hearing following conviction, not probationers awaiting a probation revocation hearing. Accordingly, we affirm the trial court's denial of Katherine M. Broughton's motion to dismiss the criminal actions against her notwithstanding the district attorney's failure to comply with the procedural requirements of section 1381.5 following Broughton's demand for a "speedy trial" of her probation revocation…