Donald E. Ryan v. State of Montana

This appeal requires us to determine whether or not a state is required to grant a probationer immunity from use of testimony he gives at a combined probation revocation and deferred sentencing hearing at a time when he is under criminal indictment for the same act that constitutes the alleged probation violation.

Petitioner, Donald E. Ryan, was convicted on three counts of grand larceny in a superior court of the State of Montana on July 27, 1973. The court placed Ryan on probation and deferred imposition of sentence for one year. ■ On July 8, 1974, when only nineteen days of Ryan’s probationary term remained, the state charged that Ryan had committed a subsequent theft, thus violating the terms of his probation. The charge was that Ryan had stolen a type writer from a bus terminal in Billings, Montana. The state moved to revoke Ryan’s probation and to impose sentencing for the 1973 convictions, and in addition it indicted petitioner for the subsequent theft. His trial on that charge was still pending during the probation and deferred sentencing hearing.

At the revocation-sentencing proceeding, Ryan moved for a continuance until after his trial on the criminal charge. This…