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Appeals court hears dispute over applying jail credit across separate county sentences
Summary
The panel considered whether a judge could apply jail credit years after sentencing in a different county and whether such an award reopens a final sentence; Commonwealth argued finality and anti-banking principles while defense urged fairness and credit placement to avoid unjust early release disparities.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court heard argument Oct. 2 in Commonwealth v. Carlos A. Bastos concerning a dispute over pretrial jail credit and whether credit applied in one county can later be assigned to a separate county sentence. Assistant District Attorney Sean Buxton argued for the Commonwealth that once a sentence attains finality the sentencing court in a different county lacked authority to reallocate jail credit years later.
Buxton told the court the issue implicates finality and procedural limits: the Commonwealth argued there was "no basis under the Massachusetts rules of criminal procedure or under the jail credit…
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