Richard Harrisonv.The State
Richard Harrison pleaded guilty to child molestation and received five years in prison followed by ten years of probation; the trial court later added a condition requiring him to violate no laws. After Harrison admitted theft by taking and failure to pay court-ordered obligations, the trial court revoked his probation in full for more than eight years. The Court of Appeals held that OCGA § 42-8-34.1(d) limited revocation for the admitted felony theft to the lesser of the remaining probation term or the applicable five-year maximum. Although the State did not prove the trailers’ value exceeded the felony threshold, Harrison’s admission to felony theft supplied a basis to apply the lowest felony range under the rule of lenity. The court held that adding the no-new-law condition was rehabilitative, not increased punishment; it rejected Harrison’s notice challenge as unpreserved and found no double-jeopardy violation. It vacated the revocation order and remanded for resentencing.
Loading published copy…

