Commonwealth v. Holmes, 15 N.E.3d 741

In 1997 Holmes pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute and completed the sentence by 1999.
In 2003 Holmes pleaded guilty to two firearm offenses and two related offender counts; he was sentenced to two concurrent terms of 12 years to 12 years and 1 day, credited for pretrial confinement.
In 2005, while incarcerated for the 2003 convictions, Holmes moved to withdraw the 1997 guilty plea on ineffective assistance grounds; the motion was granted in 2006 and the 1997 complaint was dismissed.
In 2011 Holmes, still incarcerated, moved for time served credit under G. L. c. 279, § 33A(6), seeking credit for the vacated 1997 sentence against his 2003 sentences; the Superior Court denied, the Appeals Court reversed and credited the time against the 2003 sentences.
The Commonwealth argued Holmes was not entitled to credit and that banking time was implicated; the court held that banking time barred credit when the 1997 sentence was completed before the new crimes, and affirmed the denial.
The court distinguished Manning v. Superintendent and held there were no substantive/temporal links between the 1997 and 2003 sentences, so no credit was allowed and banking concerns outweighed any dead-time fairness.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Credit for time served on vacated conviction against later sentences	Holmes seeks credit against 2003 sentences	Commonwealth denies credit; banking prohibition applies	Not entitled to credit; banking prohibition applies
Applicability of banking-time doctrine to unrelated, completed prior sentences	Banking does not apply when prior sentence was completed	Banking disallows using banked time for unrelated new convictions	Banking prohibition controls; no credit allowed

Manning v. Superintendent, Mass. Correctional Inst., Norfolk, 372 Mass. 387 (1977) (banking time not allowed for future crimes when sentences are related; dead time issue considered)
Commonwealth v. Milton, 427 Mass. 18 (1998) (banking time prevention priority over dead-time fairness)
Chalifoux v. Commissioner of Correction, 375 Mass. 424 (1978) (fairness considerations guide credit when no statute governs)
Commonwealth v. Holmes, 83 Mass. App. Ct. 737 (2013) (Appeals Court decision creditting vacated sentence against later sentences)