McCoy

Filed 8/12/2015

CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION SIX

THE PEOPLE, 2d Crim. No. B260449 (Super. Ct. No. 2012000250) Plaintiff and Respondent, (Ventura County)

v.

TIMOTHY DANIEL McCOY,

Defendant and Appellant.

Judges and lawyers who practiced criminal law in the days of the Indeterminate Sentence Law have an informed understanding of the traditional concept of parole. Prison inmates who were granted parole and released into the community were still legally in prison but were "housed" outside its walls. Parole was not "added on" to the term of imprisonment. Revocation of this parole could theoretically result in the service of a life term in prison or the remainder of the indeterminate term, e.g. five years to life or 1 to 14 years. That all changed in 1977 with the enactment of the Determinate Sentence Law. Parole violation and return to state prison could only occur for a felony and there was a set statutory term for imprisonment. This parole was "added on" to the term of imprisonment. Now we have Proposition 47 and a…