Court Opinion

ID: 9636495
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 14:31:15.998845+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:46.451969
License: Public Domain

GLASSMAN, Justice,
dissenting.
I must respectfully dissent. 29 M.R.S.A. § 1312-B(2)(F) (Supp.1994) provides:
For purposes of this section, a prior conviction has occurred within the 6-year period provided if the date of docket entry by the clerk of a judgment of conviction or adjudication is 6 years or less from the date of the new conduct which is penalized or for which the penalty is or may be enhanced.
In the instant case the language in the complaint that “the said defendant having previously been convicted of a violation of Title 29 M.R.S.A. § 1312-B,” failed to specify that the conviction was within the past 6 years.
The Maine Constitution confers on an accused the right “[t]o demand the nature and cause of the accusation.” Me. Const, art. I, § 6. 15 M.R.S.A. § 757(1) (Supp.1994) requires that a prior conviction be “specially alleged” in a prosecution for any crime when the sentence must be enhanced based on that prior conviction. Section 757(1) provides that the prior conviction must be “alleged as part of a count in the complaint, information or indictment ... [or] in an ancillary eharg-*1209ing instrument [that] may be filed with the court at any time prior to the imposition of sentence.” Thus, the prior conviction is an essential element of the complaint. Landry v. State, 575 A.2d 315, 317 (Me.1990).
When a sentence is imposed pursuant to a statutory provision that provides for an increased maximum sentence, or that limits the discretion of a sentencing court by requiring a mandatory minimum nonsus-pendable sentence for a second or subsequent offense, the prior offense or offenses must be alleged in the charging instrument and proved at trial.
State v. Keith, 595 A.2d 1019, 1021 (Me.1991).1 Failure to allege the previous conviction precludes the court from imposing the mandatory minimum penalty set out in section 1312-B(2)(C). Id.
The attempt to distinguish Keith, where the complaint did not allege any prior conviction, on the ground that the complaint in this case should be “interpreted in a commonsense manner and ... not ... subjected to arbitrary or overly technical tests such as were applied at common law,” State v. Carter, 444 A.2d 37, 39 (Me.1982), does not satisfy the statutory mandate. It is only when a conviction within six years is pleaded and proved that a defendant is subjected to the mandatory minimum sentence provided in section 1312-B(2)(C). To require that the basis for the enhancement be alleged specifically is not subjecting the complaint to an arbitrary or overly technical test.
Nor can the specific requirements of 1312-B(2)(C) be read into the complaint by necessary intendment or implication. See State v. Martin, 387 A.2d 592, 593-94 (Me.1978). In Martin, we were not addressing an enhancement of a sentence. The uniform traffic ticket and complaint identified Martin as the owner of a certain motor vehicle, set forth the date and location of the offense and charged him with the offense of operating under the influence of intoxicating liquor. The traffic ticket and complaint also referred to 29 M.R.S.A. § 1312, the section then governing criminal OUI. Id. We held that, in those circumstances, the charge that Martin operated under the influence necessarily implied that it was his motor vehicle he was operating. Id. Such is not the case here. Because the enhanced sentence was improperly imposed as a mandatory minimum sentence pursuant to section 1312-B(2)(C), I would vacate the sentence and remand for resentencing.

. In Keith, unlike the present case, it was not apparent from the record that the sentence was imposed pursuant to the mandatory minimum sentence language set out in 29 M.R.S.A. § 1312-B(2)(C). Keith, 595 A.2d at 1021.