Court Opinion

ID: 9509738
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 21:49:09.699877+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:07:52.684454
License: Public Domain

CHIEF JUSTICE TURNAGE,
specially concurring:
I respectfully specially concur, specifically to the majority opinion holding that the opinion will apply retroactively to those cases still subject to final decision on direct review on the date of this opinion but will not apply retroactively to cases on collateral review after the date of this opinion.
I further specially concur and urge the next session of the Montana legislative assembly to amend § 45-2-203, MCA, to eliminate the problem this Court finds to exist in the 1987 amended version of this statute. I would recommend that the legislature consider amending § 45-2-203, MCA, to reinstate the provisions thereof that existed in the 1985 version of this statute. Such amendment would essentially reinstate language that “[a]n intoxicated or drugged condition may be taken into consideration in determination of the existence of a mental state which is an element of the offense.”