State v. Picklesimer, 388 S.C. 264

Summary

The Supreme Court of South Carolina reversed the circuit court’s discharge of James Dean Picklesimer’s remaining sentence. The court held that the original sentence for purposes of community supervision revocation includes both suspended and unsuspended portions, and defined successful completion of community supervision as up to two continuous years without violations or a prior determination by the Department that the defendant fulfilled his responsibilities. The court concluded Picklesimer had not successfully completed the program and remained subject to community supervision or probation through the expiration of his original sentence.

Holdings

1. The original sentence includes both the suspended and unsuspended portions of the sentence imposed by the circuit court. A court may not revoke and impose further incarceration, or lengthen CSP or probation, if doing so would cause the aggregate period of service to extend beyond the end of the original sentence.
2. Successful completion of CSP means completing a maximum of two continuous years in the program without violations or revocations, or the Department's determination that the defendant fulfilled CSP responsibilities before serving two years.
3. When CSP is revoked because of violations, the CSP term begins anew when the defendant is released from revocation incarceration, subject to the outside limit imposed by the original sentence.
4. Picklesimer was not entitled to discharge of his remaining sentence and probation because he had not successfully completed CSP. The circuit court therefore erred in discharging the sentence.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Picklesimer had to be treated as having successfully completed the community supervision program because the Department terminated his participation after incorrectly determining that he had exhausted the available revocation-incarceration period.
2. Whether the court had to distinguish successful completion of the community supervision program from the inability to continue supervision after reaching the maximum incarceration time attributable to CSP revocations.
3. What aggregate period of incarceration, community supervision, and residual probation may be imposed under South Carolina Code section 24-21-560(D) for successive community supervision violations.

Disposition

reversed