State v. Maine

¶48 I concur in affirming the District Court but dissent from the Court’s reasoning, particularly, the creation of the expansive right to challenge prior judgments. The Court’s decision authorizes collateral attacks upon prior convictions on virtually limitless grounds, substantially expanding our jurisprudence which permitted challenges based upon asserted violations of the right to counsel. Now, whenever a prior conviction is to serve as a sentencing enhancement, any challenge which asserts a constitutionally based defect in the prior conviction may be raised in the midst of the criminal…