Court Opinion

ID: 9507671
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 21:24:37.094002+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:07:22.271170
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE SHEA,
concurring:
I join in the opinion and simply point out that in holding that a party can challenge the selection of a jury panel by raising the issue for the first time on appeal, we have impliedly overruled our holding in State v. Fitzpatrick (1977), 178 Mont. 530, 536, 569 P.2d 383, 387-388. Although we reversed defendant’s conviction and the conviction of a co-defendant on other grounds and sent the case back for retrial, we held in Fitzpatrick that “defendants cannot challenge the jury for the first time on appeal on the ground that the District Court failed to select and draw panels in accordance with applicable Montana law.” In reaching our decision here this Court should have addressed Fitzpatrick and the two other cases relied on in Fitzpatrick for the proposition which we are impliedly overruling today.