Court Opinion

ID: 9510419
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 21:55:59.960889+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:08:00.409116
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE LEAPHART,
specially concurring.
¶27 Although I concur with the Court’s conclusions that when the plea agreement and the sentencing colloquy are read together, Wilson was adequately advised that he faced a 100-year sentence on each count plus ten years on each count. However, I think the preferable approach in implementing the requirements of § 46-16-105(l)(b), MCA (1985), is to explicitly advise a defendant of the maximum penalty provided by law assuming that consecutive sentences are imposed for each count involved in the plea. For example, the defendant in this case would have been forewarned that if consecutive sentences were imposed for both counts in the plea he would be exposed to a maximum penalty of 220 years.
JUSTICE NELSON joins in the foregoing specially concurring opinion.