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Rule 38 – Stay of Execution of Sentence

May 13, 2021 | Criminal Procedure, Maine

(a) Sentence Involving Imprisonment, Probation, Supervised Release, or Administrative Release. Any portion of a sentence involving imprisonment, probation, supervised release, or administrative release shall be stayed if an appeal is taken and the defendant is admitted to bail pending appeal. A court may not under any circumstances place the defendant in execution of a probationary period, period of supervised release, or period of administrative release while on bail pending appeal.
(b) Sentence Involving Alternatives Other than Imprisonment, Probation, Supervised Release, or Administrative Release. Any portion of a sentence involving a sentence alternative other than imprisonment, probation, supervised release, or administrative release shall be stayed by the court upon request of the defendant if an appeal is taken and if the defendant is admitted to bail pending appeal. If the defendant takes an appeal and does not or cannot seek bail pending appeal or is unable to meet the bail that is set, the court upon request of the defendant may stay any portion of a sentence involving money and may stay any other sentence alternative on any terms considered appropriate. If the judgment is vacated and the stayed sentence alternative involves money, the clerk of the Unified Criminal Docket shall forthwith refund to the defendant, or to such person as the defendant shall direct, any funds deposited to cover the defendant’s money alternative. If the judgment is affirmed, the funds so deposited shall be applied by the clerk in payment of the money alternative. The clerk shall forthwith notify the defendant that such application has been made and, when applicable, the money alternative paid in full.
(c) Automatic Termination of Stay. If a judgment is affirmed on appeal, a court ordered stay under subdivision (a) or (b) automatically terminates when the mandate of the Law Court is entered in the Unified Criminal Docket of the trial court.
(d) Surrender of Defendant Following Automatic Termination of Stay.

When a stay of a sentence of imprisonment automatically terminates pursuant to subdivision (c), the clerk of the Unified Criminal Docket shall forthwith mail a date-stamped copy of the mandate to the parties and to the sheriff named in the commitment order. Within 3 days after that mailing, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays, the defendant’s appellate counsel or, if not represented by counsel on appeal, the defendant shall contact the office of the sheriff named in the commitment order and make arrangements satisfactory to the sheriff for surrendering into that sheriff’s custody that day or, at the direction of the sheriff, the next regular business day. If such arrangements are not timely made, or if the arrangements are not complied with, upon the request of the named sheriff or the attorney for the State, or by direction of the court, the clerk shall issue a warrant for the defendant’s arrest. Upon issuance of that warrant and necessary notice by the clerk to the court of that fact, the court, in conformity with Rule 46(g)(1), shall declare a forfeiture of the post-conviction bail because of the breach of condition.

Me. R. Uni. Crim. P. 38

Last amended effective November 2, 2016.