State v. Laurick

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

O’HERN, J.

The question in this case is whether the assertion that a prior guilty plea to a charge of driving while intoxicated (DWI) was without the advice of counsel prevents the imposition of enhanced penalties on a second DWI conviction.

There are two aspects of our analysis. The first is constitutional analysis of the limits on a state’s power to impose recidivist penalties on the basis of uncounseled convictions. The second is a more familiar judicial analysis of what constitutes good cause for collateral relief from an earlier judgment of…