Court Opinion

ID: 9526388
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:16:36.851532+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:19:40.741209
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(specially concurring).
There is a defect in the proceedings below which should be called to the attention of the trial judge herein.
After Appellee had entered his uncoun-seled guilty plea in the 1989 Beadle County arraignment and after the court accepted said plea as being “voluntary, intelligent and knowing supported by facts,” I note the fourth colloquy, between the trial court and Cashman, with respect to the disposition of an Information alleging a prior DWI conviction (enhancement aspect of the second conviction):
THE COURT: It’s also been filed with the Court the second part of the information Mr. Cashman would indicate this would be a second offense driving and controlling a vehicle with alcohol in the blood. Have you received a copy of that? (Emphasis supplied mine).
MR. CASHMAN: Yes.
THE COURT: Do you need a minute to look at that or_? * Do you have any questions on this part of the information?
MR. CASHMAN: No.
THE COURT: You also have the right to have this part of the information read into the record or that again could be waived if you feel that’s unnecessary. Do you understand this read?
MR. CASHMAN: No, Sir.
THE COURT: The formal reading of this part of the information would then be waived. Are you prepared at this time to enter a plea to this part of the information?
MR. CASHMAN: Yes.
THE COURT: To the information charging that this would be a second offense driving and controlling a vehicle with alcohol in the blood. What do you plead, guilty or not guilty?
MR. CASHMAN: Guilty.
Trial court then asked Cashman if he was the same Michael James Cashman as the Michael James Cashman who was convicted in 1988 of DWI in Sanborn County. Cash-man answered yes, he was, whereupon the trial court took notice of the certified copies of the Sanborn County pleadings. Trial court then pronounced sentence. Regarding the separate information, there is nothing in the record to show that Cash-man was advised of his right to a jury trial to the separate information alleging a prior conviction. See, SDCL 32-23-4.4 and State v. Bartlett, 411 N.W.2d 411 (S.D.1987). There is nothing in the record to establish Cashman was advised of those rights specified in SDCL 23A-7-4, i.e., the (1) right to an attorney or (2) court-appointed attorney or (3) the right to confront and (4) cross-examine or (5) the right to remain silent or (6) the consequences of an admission.
Cashman’s knowledge, when confronted with the separate information alleging a prior DWI conviction, was restricted to the *467singular right to have the second information read to him. Nothing more. How could Cashman assert any rights when he was not advised of them? Obviously, he could not. This all pertains to the enhancement on the second conviction. This does not mean that the second conviction is invalid. It does mean that the enhancement on the second provision is faulty. It does not mean that the first conviction is invalid or that the third conviction in 1991, the case before us, is invalid. This defect does not vitiate the existence of three valid convictions. Three valid convictions attend unto Cashman.
So why write this special concurrence? Elementary, my dear Watson. First, counsel for appellee Cashman briefed this point, heavily relying on it. Second, a trial judge, on an enhancement proceeding, should arraign a defendant with the admonitions set forth above. To not do so, is to “set up” a criminal defendant for punishment (enhanced punishment) without benefit of telling him that he has several rights, to include being represented by an attorney and having a jury trial. Third, an appellate body exists to present a structural or procedural measure to mitigate or avoid future adverse effects when advising defendants in sentencing enhancement, via a Part II or Second Information. Thereby, costly appeals can be averted.

 Unavailable to this writer because record does not reflect what should be in the blank.