State of Tennessee v. Vincent D. Clark, M2016-02101-CCA-R3-CD

Defendant Vincent D. Clark pleaded guilty (Sept. 12, 2012) to reckless homicide and reckless aggravated assault; received concurrent four-year sentences with one year to serve in confinement and the balance on probation; 59 days pretrial jail credit awarded.
Defendant was released from county jail on Feb. 17, 2013 after serving part of the confinement term; trial court subsequently issued and disposed of multiple probation revocation warrants (July 8, 2013 dismissed Mar. 7, 2014; July 8, 2015 reinstated Dec. 17, 2015; June 20, 2016 issued and later dismissed Sept. 15, 2016).
On Sept. 15, 2016 the trial court dismissed the June 20, 2016 revocation warrant as untimely, reasoning probation had expired Feb. 17, 2016.
The State appealed the dismissal, arguing the four-year sentence had not expired when the June 2016 warrant was issued.
The Court of Criminal Appeals held the trial court erred: (1) early administrative release did not shorten the four-year sentence; (2) each revocation warrant tolled the probationary period while pending; (3) when tolling is accounted for, the defendant remained on probation when the June 2016 warrant issued.
The appellate court vacated the dismissal, remanded for a revocation hearing, and ordered correction of clerical errors in the judgment forms (incorrect incarceration start date and an erroneous "365 months" entry).

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the June 20, 2016 revocation warrant was untimely because probation expired Feb. 17, 2016	Warrant timely; defendant still on sentence when issued (State)	Probation expired Feb. 17, 2016 because defendant was released from confinement then	Held for State: probation had not expired; dismissal was error
Whether early administrative release shortens the court-ordered sentence	Release does not alter court judgment; sentence unchanged (State)	Early release completed confinement portion, shortening probation term (Clark)	Held for State: administrative release does not reduce total sentence
Whether prior revocation warrants toll the probationary period	Warrants toll running of probation while pending (State)	Not raised as central by Clark at trial; implicit contention probation had run	Held for State: tolling applies; prior warrants extended expiration date
Whether trial court must correct clerical errors on judgment forms	Court should correct erroneous dates/terms (State)	N/A	Held: trial court ordered to amend incarceration start date and fix "365 months" error

State v. Shaffer, 45 S.W.3d 553 (Tenn. 2001) (filing of revocation warrant tolls probationary period)
Allen v. State, 505 S.W.2d 715 (Tenn. 1974) (revocation warrant tolls running of probation)
McGuire v. State, 292 S.W.2d 190 (Tenn. 1956) (issuance of warrant interrupts probationary period until hearing)
State v. Taylor, 992 S.W.2d 941 (Tenn. 1999) (calculation of sentence expiration in days)
State v. Burkhart, 566 S.W.2d 871 (Tenn. 1978) (Department of Correction may not alter trial court judgment)
State v. Reams, 265 S.W.3d 423 (Tenn. Crim. App. 2007) (standard of review for probation revocation)
State v. Phelps, 329 S.W.3d 436 (Tenn. 2010) (abuse of discretion explained)