Spears v. State

OPINION

HANSON, Justice.

Appellant Randall Mark Spears was convicted of six counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree and two counts of kidnapping. While Spears’s petition to this court for further review of his direct appeal was pending, the United States Supreme Court announced its decision in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 490, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000) (holding that, “[ojther than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable…