DOCUMENT 629

ELECTRONICALLY FILED
10/26/2023 2:50 PM
44-CC-2019-000476.00
CIRCUIT COURT OF
LIMESTONE COUNTY, ALABAMA
BRAD CURNUTT, CLERK
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF LIMESTONE COUNTY, ALABAMA

STATE OF ALABAMA )
)
v. ) CASE NO. CC-2019-0476
)
MICHAEL ANTHONY BLAKELY, )
)
Defendant. )

State’s Renewed Notice of Absence of Jurisdiction

The State of Alabama respectfully opposes Defendant Michael Anthony Blakely’s

response to the State’s notice that this Court lacks jurisdiction to convert or otherwise

modify Blakely’s sentence.

1. This Court lacks jurisdiction to convert Blakely’s sentence to community

corrections—in reality, to send him home on probation—because Alabama Code § 15-18-

172 requires the Department of Corrections to first approve a state inmate for assignment

to community corrections. Id. § 172(d). Because Blakely has offered no evidence or

otherwise proffered that the Department has approved his request, he is ineligible and there

is nothing for this Court to do.

2. Blakely’s sentence is not illegal because the sentencing guidelines do not

require courts to impose a split sentence. On the contrary, the Guidelines provide explicitly

that “[t]he use of [a] split remains a matter entirely within the discretion of the sentencing

judge when permitted.” Ala. Sentencing Comm’n, Presumptive and Voluntary Sentencing

Standards Manual, at 35 (2019).

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3. Finally, Blakely’s straight county-jail sentence is neither illegal nor has it

been misinterpreted or misapplied. Blakely wrongly objects that he is not receiving “good

time” because of “obsolete” Alabama law. Not so. He is not receiving good time because

a statute that has been amended three times in the last eight years has consistently provided

that a county jail inmate not serving a hard-labor sentence does not receive good time. Ala.

Code § 14-9-41(a) (recording amendments in 2015, 2022, and 2023). If the Legislature

wanted to treat county jail inmates like Blakely differently, it had the opportunity to do

so—three different times. Because it did not do so, Blakely has no viable objection.

Respectfully submitted on this 26th day of October, 2023.

STEVE MARSHALL
Attorney General

s/ Kyle Beckman
Kyle Beckman
Assistant Attorney General

STATE OF ALABAMA
OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
501 Washington Avenue
Montgomery, AL 36104
(334) 353-2619
Kyle.Beckman@AlabamaAG.gov

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I certify that on October 26, 2023, I electronically filed the foregoing by using the
AlaFile system, which will send notification of such filing to all counsel of record.

s/ Kyle Beckman
Assistant Attorney General