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Written by Brian Smeester - Narrated by Jack Smeester
00:00 / 00:00
United States Supreme Court
BEARDEN v. GEORGIA, (1983)
No. 81-6633
Argued: January 11, 1983 Decided: May 24, 1983
Held:
A sentencing court cannot properly revoke a defendant's probation for failure to pay a fine and make restitution, absent evidence and findings that he was somehow responsible for the failure or that alternative forms of punishment were inadequate to meet the State's interest in punishment and deterrence, and hence here the trial court erred in automatically revoking petitioner's probation and turning the fine into a prison sentence without making such a determination.
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