Louisiana's prison system did not wrongly hold an inmate for more than 500 days after he was supposed to be released, a federal appeals court has ruled.
Reversing a lower court, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Department of Corrections Secretary Jimmy LeBlanc, dismissing a lawsuit by inmate Percy Taylor.
It was a legal win for a department that has faced significant scrutiny over how it calculates sentences. Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that, after launching a two-year investigation, the agency had found widespread errors in how the state Department of Corrections calculates inmate sentences.
Over several months, more than one in four inmates had been imprisoned past their sentences, the investigation found.
Taylor, of Iberville Parish, pleaded guilty to a felony in 1995 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but was released on parole in 2000. He was arrested for another felony in 2002, pleaded guilty and received a 20-year sentence.
Since his second felony arrest violated the parole terms of his first case, Taylor was required to serve the remainder of his sentence in the first arrest.
In calculating his release date, prison officials gave Taylor credit for the 602 days he served between his second arrest and receiving his 20-year sentence. But Taylor argued they also should have applied that time served to the remainder of his first sentence.
The appeals court, however, ruled that Louisiana law says a parole revocation sentence and a subsequent felony sentence should be served consecutively — meaning Taylor had to serve the remaining time on his first sentence before serving his 20-year prison term. He was not entitled to "double credit" for his pretrial detention, they ruled.
The judges calculated Taylor's full-time release date would have been February 2027, but after factoring in various credits, the district court decided Taylor was entitled to an earlier release date in May 2020; he was actually released in February, after the lower court's ruling.
"The state court’s error resulted in Taylor being released three months earlier than his release date on May 5, 2020," the ruling says.
While the judges acknowledged Taylor was entitled to the good time credit for the first, five-year sentence after the state court awarded it, the judges disagreed that the delay in Taylor's release after the state court decision was because of LeBlanc's failure to train officials correctly.
"It appears to us that the prison officials’ calculations were correct," they wrote.
DOC spokesperson Ken Pastorick said, "The Department is pleased with the Fifth Circuit’s ruling that reversed the erroneous decision of the District Court."
Anya Bidwell, Taylor's lawyer, declined a request for comment.