Court Opinion

ID: 9531899
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:15:49.6195+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:37.148963
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE GRAY,
specially concurring.
I specially concur in the Court’s opinion.
For the reasons stated at some length in my dissent in Finley, I continue to strenuously disagree that we should apply the common law plain error doctrine absent a successful constitutional challenge to § 46-20-701(2), MCA, the plain error statute duly enacted by the Montana Legislature. See Finley, 915 P.2d at 222-23 (Gray, J., dissenting). Having failed to convince my brethren of their error in the context of Finley, however, I am now bound to recognize — and to apply — the Court’s holding therein as the law of the state of Montana.
That said, I concur entirely in the Court’s analysis and resolution of the issue of whether the prosecutor’s comments on Sullivan’s post-Miranda silence violated Sullivan’s right to due process and privilege against self-incrimination. I join the Court in reversing and remanding.