People v. Roseberry

                                                                       Michigan Supreme Court
                                                                       Lansing, Michigan 48909
____________________________________________________________________________________________
                                                                C hief Justice                   Justices
                                                                Maura D. Cor rigan	              Michael F. Cavanagh




Opinion
                                                                                                 Elizabeth A. Weaver
                                                                                                 Marilyn Kelly
                                                                                                 Clifford W. Taylor
                                                                                                 Robert P. Young, Jr.
                                                                                                 Stephen J. Markman

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

                                                                                      FILED APRIL 9, 2002





                PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN,


                        Plaintiff-Appellee,


                v	                                                                             No.          115184


                ROBERT JAMES ROSEBERRY,


                     Defendant-Appellant.

                ____________________________________

                BEFORE THE ENTIRE BENCH


                TAYLOR, J.


                        Defendant pleaded guilty to OUIL-3d, as a third-felony


                habitual offender.                 After being sentenced on the OUIL-3d


                conviction, defendant moved to set aside the conviction on the


                ground that his two earlier OUIL convictions were invalid


                because he was not afforded counsel in connection with them.


                The circuit court denied the motion, and the Court of Appeals


                denied defendant’s application for leave to appeal.                                             We


                affirm, because such an untimely collateral attack on a prior


                conviction cannot provide a basis for relief.

                                   I


      Pursuant to a plea agreement and while represented by


counsel, defendant pleaded guilty in the circuit court to the


felony of operating under the influence of intoxicating liquor


or a controlled substance, third offense, MCL 257.625(8)(c)1,


as   well   as   being   a   third-felony   habitual   offender,   MCL


769.11.2 Thereafter, the circuit court sentenced defendant to


80 to 120 months (six years, eight months to ten years) of


imprisonment on the OUIL-3d conviction (with the habitual


third enhancement).


      Defendant’s conviction of OUIL-3d was predicated on two


prior OUIL convictions. After sentencing in the present case,


defendant, in a motion to vacate his OUIL-3d conviction and


sentence, challenged for the first time the validity of his


prior OUIL convictions on the basis of his claim that he was


not properly afforded his right to counsel in connection with


the prior convictions.3       The circuit court denied the motion.



      1

       Defendant admitted at the plea proceeding that he had

been driving on U.S. 23 while he was “way over the legal limit

of intoxication” from having consumed a large amount of beer

and that his consumption of alcohol had affected him to the

point that he could not properly drive a motor vehicle.

      2
       Defendant also pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors that

are immaterial for present purposes.

      3

       An indigent defendant is constitutionally entitled to

appointed counsel to defend against a misdemeanor charge if

the defendant is “actually imprisoned” as a result of being


                                   2

The    Court    of    Appeals   denied       defendant’s    ensuing   delayed


application for leave to appeal.                Unpublished order, entered


June 9, 1999 (Docket No. 218032).                We granted leave, limited


to whether defendant’s collateral challenge to his earlier


OUIL convictions “was timely where it was not made until after


he had pleaded guilty of OUIL, third offense.”                 463 Mich 976


(2001).


                                     II


                                        A


       The present case presents a straightforward question of


law, whether a defendant, after pleading guilty to a crime


such as OUIL-3d that depends on the defendant having one or


more    prior    convictions,     may        collaterally   attack    a   prior


conviction on the ground that it was improperly obtained


because of a denial of the right to counsel.                   We hold that


such an untimely collateral attack on a prior conviction


should not be entertained by Michigan courts.


       The present case involves a collateral, as opposed to a


direct, attack on defendant’s two prior OUIL convictions


because the attack is being made in the present OUIL-3d case


rather than having been made in a direct appeal from the prior


convictions.         People v Ingram, 439 Mich 288, 291 n 1; 484 NW2d


241 (1992) (“Collateral attacks encompass those challenges



convicted of the charged misdemeanor. People v Reichenbach,

459 Mich 109, 120; 587 NW2d 1 (1998).


                                        3

raised other than by initial appeal of the conviction in


question”).


      In People v Crawford, 417 Mich 607; 339 NW2d 630 (1983),


the defendant, under a plea bargain, pleaded nolo contendere


to forgery and guilty to being an habitual second offender.


On appeal, the defendant in Crawford argued that the plea


bargain was illusory because the plea-based prior conviction


under the habitual offender charge was subject to attack


because it was obtained without the defendant being advised of


two   of   the     constitutional    rights    required      by   People   v


Jaworski, 387 Mich 21; 194 NW2d 868 (1972).4              In affirming the


defendant’s guilty plea to being an habitual offender, the


Crawford Court stated:


           A conviction defective under Jaworski can be

      challenged by a timely motion by the defendant to

      quash the supplemental information or to strike

      from the supplemental information the defective

      conviction. To be timely, such a motion must be

      made before a defendant’s plea of guilty or nolo

      contendere is accepted. [Id. at 613-614.]


In    light   of    the   result    in    Crawford   of    affirming   the



      4
       In Jaworski, this Court, applying Boykin v Alabama, 395

US 238; 89 S Ct 1709; 23 L Ed 2d 274 (1969), held that, in a

plea proceeding conducted after the June 2, 1969 date of the

Boykin opinion, a defendant must be informed by the trial

court of and specifically waive (1) the right to trial by

jury, (2) the right to confront one’s accusers, and (3) the

right against compelled self-incrimination. Accordingly, in

directly reviewing the plea-based conviction in Jaworski, in

which the trial court failed to inform the defendant of the

right against compelled self-incrimination, id. at 26, this

Court vacated the conviction and remanded the case for further

proceedings. Id. at 33.


                                     4

defendant’s   plea-based   conviction,   its   actual   holding   is


implicit in the second of these sentences.         While the first


sentence says collateral challenges are possible, the second


gives the deadline for when they must be presented to be


considered.   Because the deadline was missed by the defendant


in   Crawford,   that   fact   is    dispositive   of   the   case.


Accordingly, the first sentence was mere dicta because the


merits or nature of the collateral attack in Crawford were of


no consequence to its resolution, given the untimeliness of


the collateral attack in that case.        Thus, the dissent is


simply incorrect in asserting that the first sentence was


“part of the resolution of the case.”      Post, p 8. 


     This Court also stated in Crawford:


          Crawford not having moved to set aside the

     prior conviction of which he now complains or to

     quash the supplemental information, and it not

     appearing that the prosecutor was on notice that

     the prior conviction may have been deficient or

     subject to challenge, Crawford cannot properly

     complain that he might not or would not have pled

     guilty or might have worked out a better plea

     bargain if the facts had been developed and his

     legal position had been sustained. [Id. At 613.]


While the dissent emphasizes the factual difference that


Crawford did not involve a challenge to a prior conviction


based on a violation of the right to counsel, the rationale of


Crawford nevertheless applies with equal force to the present


case.   Because (1) defendant did not move in the trial court


to set aside either of his prior OUIL convictions before



                                5

pleading guilty to OUIL-3d and (2) nothing in the record


indicates that the prosecution in the present case should have


been on notice of any alleged deficiency in the prior OUIL


convictions,      defendant     was    precluded   from      collaterally


attacking the prior convictions after pleading guilty to the


OUIL-3d charge.




                                      B


      Justice Brickley authored a concurrence in Crawford in


which, joined by Justice Ryan, he expressed disagreement with


the   assertion    in   the    Crawford    majority’s       dicta   that   a


conviction    defective       under   Jaworski   may   be    collaterally


attacked by a timely motion during an habitual offender


proceeding.    Crawford, supra at 614-615.              Rather, Justice


Brickley would have resolved Crawford by holding that only


guilty pleas taken in violation of the right to counsel


articulated in Gideon v Wainwright, 372 US 335; 83 S Ct 792;


9 L Ed 2d 799 (1963),     would be subject to collateral attack.


Crawford, supra at 615.          It follows that, under this view,


Jaworski violations would only be subject to direct attack.


Later, in      Ingram, supra at 296-297, this Court adopted


Justice Brickley’s concurrence in Crawford.            Therefore, after


Ingram, only Gideon violations could support a collateral


attack on a plea-based conviction. The remaining significance




                                      6

of Crawford, after Ingram, was that Crawford had established


a timeliness factor in bringing a collateral attack on a


predicate conviction. We today make clear that any collateral


challenge to a prior conviction must be brought in a timely


fashion.    Accordingly, to be understood is that the adoption


by this Court in Ingram of Justice Brickley’s concurrence in


Crawford does not negate the actual holding of this Court in


Crawford   foreclosing     an    untimely     collateral       attack   on   a


conviction.      Rather,        the    holding   of   Crawford      barring


collateral attacks of whatever sort on a prior conviction that


are not advanced until after a defendant tenders a plea in the


present proceeding remains intact. 


                                      III


      Contrary to the apparent view of the dissent, the present


case is distinguishable from Burgett v Texas, 389 US 109; 88


S Ct 258; 19 L Ed 2d 319 (1967), and United States v Tucker,


404 US 443; 92 S Ct 589; 30 L Ed 2d 592 (1972).                 In Burgett,


the   United   States   Supreme       Court   reversed     a    defendant’s


convictions following a jury trial on the basis of the use of


prior convictions that were from all appearances obtained


without the benefit of counsel in violation of Gideon, supra.


In Tucker, the defendant was also convicted of a crime by a


jury.   Id. at 444-445.         At sentencing, the federal district


court expressly considered three prior felony convictions of




                                       7

the defendant.      The    Tucker Court held that the defendant was


entitled     to    resentencing     because      it   subsequently        was


determined        that    the    prior     felony     convictions     were


constitutionally invalid as they were obtained without the


defendant    having      been   provided   the   right     to   counsel    as


provided by Gideon, supra.         Tucker, supra at 447.


     In contrast to Burgett and Tucker, both of which involved


a defendant convicted after a jury trial, defendant in the


present     case     pleaded     guilty    to    OUIL-3d    and    thereby


acknowledged the validity of his prior OUIL convictions.                   It


is this acknowledgment that distinguishes our case, where a


plea of guilty sanitized any earlier collateral error, and


Burgett and Tucker where no such acknowledgment took place.


The watershed importance of a plea of guilty in criminal


procedure law was made clear by the United States Supreme


Court in Tollett v Henderson, 411 US 258, 267; 93 S Ct 1602;


36 L Ed 2d 235 (1973), where the Court held in the context of


federal habeas corpus review of a state criminal conviction:


          [A] guilty plea represents a break in the

     chain of events which has preceded it in the

     criminal process.   When a criminal defendant has

     solemnly admitted in open court that he is in fact

     guilty of the offense with which he is charged, he

     may not thereafter raise independent claims

     relating to the deprivation of constitutional

     rights that occurred prior to the entry of the

     guilty plea.


     The parties have not cited, and we have not discovered,


any precedent from the United States Supreme Court that carves


                                     8

out an exception to this broad principle for possible Gideon


violations    in    connection   with   an   antecedent   conviction.


Therefore, contrary to the implication of the dissent, a


defendant does not have the unlimited right under controlling


precedent to raise at any time a claim that a prior conviction


is “void” under Gideon.        Rather, the defendant is precluded


from this if the time he chooses to raise his Gideon claim is


after an intervening guilty plea to an offense such as OUIL­

3d, which inherently includes an admission of the validity of


the prior conviction.         Accordingly, it is appropriate—and


consistent with federal constitutional law as articulated by


the United States Supreme Court—to preclude defendant in this


case from collaterally attacking the prior OUIL convictions


underlying his guilty plea to OUIL-3d on the basis of his


claims   of   constitutional      deprivations     that   occurred    in


connection with the prior convictions.


     We believe that the dissent’s reliance, post at 5, on


Menna v New York, 423 US 61; 96 S Ct 241; 46 L Ed 2d 195


(1975), to effectively reject the applicability of Tollett,


supra, is misplaced.          In its brief per curiam opinion in


Menna, the United States Supreme Court held that a guilty plea


to a charge does not foreclose a claim that the charge is


barred   by   the   federal    Double   Jeopardy   Clause.    In     this


context, the Court included in a footnote the following




                                   9

sentence which is relied on by the dissent:


          A guilty plea, therefore, simply renders

     irrelevant those constitutional violations not

     logically inconsistent with the valid establishment

     of factual guilt and which do not stand in the way

     of   conviction  if   factual   guilt   is  validly

     established. [Menna, supra at 62-63, n 2.]


This language, considered in context, refers to constitutional


violations in a case in which the guilty plea at hand is


taken, not to alleged constitutional violations related to


prior convictions.5   The point is that a double jeopardy


challenge is not waived by a guilty plea because even the


unquestionable establishment of factual guilt would not allow


a conviction to be validly entered if the conviction would


constitute a double jeopardy violation.   Further, defendant’s


factual guilt in the present case was validly established by


his guilty plea to OUIL-3d.   Thus, our reliance on Tollett is


in no way inconsistent with the language cited from Menna.6



     5

       This is especially so because Menna did not involve a

guilty plea to an “enhanced” crime such as OUIL-3d that

depends on the existence of prior convictions. Thus, no issue

involving the use or validity of an antecedent conviction was

before the Menna Court. 

     6
        We also disagree with the dissent’s effort to

distinguish Tollett on the basis that it “involved a direct

challenge to a plea” and “did not involve a collateral

challenge.”   Post at 5.     While defendant is advancing a

collateral challenge to his prior OUIL convictions, he is

doing so in an effort to directly challenge his plea to OUIL­
3d in the present case. Accordingly, Tollett is on point in

precluding   defendant   from   raising  claims   of   alleged

constitutional violations that occurred before his guilty plea

to OUIL-3d for the purpose of challenging his OUIL-3d

conviction.


                              10

     Further, after setting forth the above quotation from


Menna, the dissent concludes:


          In this case, defendant’s conviction of OUIL­
     3d depends on prior OUIL convictions, one or more

     of which were obtained in violation of the right to

     counsel. As further analysis reveals, no precedent

     exists that sustains the majority’s implicit

     decision that defendant’s factual guilt of his

     prior   counselless    convictions   was    validly

     established. [Post at 6.]


This confuses the issue that is properly before us because our


concern is whether defendant’s factual guilt of OUIL-3d was


validly established in the present case, not whether his


factual guilt of the antecedent OUIL convictions was validly


established   in   prior   proceedings.   Defendant,   with    the


assistance of counsel, pleaded guilty to OUIL-3d.             This


constituted a valid establishment of his factual guilt of


OUIL-3d because, as stated in Menna, supra at 62-63, n 2, “a


counseled plea of guilty is an admission of factual guilt so


reliable that, where voluntary and intelligent, it quite


validly removes the issue of factual guilt from the case.”


Thus, the critical point is that, in pleading guilty to OUIL­

3d (with the assistance of counsel), defendant acknowledged


his prior OUIL convictions.     Accordingly, there is simply no


occasion for us to independently examine, as the dissent would


do, whether defendant’s factual guilt was validly established


in the proceedings that resulted in those prior convictions.





                                11

                                   IV


      Defendant’s argument that his two prior OUIL convictions


should be treated as invalid because he was not properly


afforded    his   right   to   counsel   in   connection      with   those


convictions comes too late.        A collateral attack on a prior


conviction underlying a present charge may not be made after


a   defendant’s    plea   of   guilty    to   the   present   charge    is


accepted.    Thus, we affirm the judgment of the circuit court.


      CORRIGAN , C.J., and CAVANAGH , WEAVER , YOUNG , and MARKMAN , JJ.,


concurred with TAYLOR , J.





                                   12

                S T A T E    O F   M I C H I G A N


                            SUPREME COURT





PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN,


     Plaintiff-Appellee,


v                                                     No. 115184


ROBERT ROSEBERRY,


     Defendant-Appellant.

___________________________________

KELLY, J. (dissenting).


     Defendant Roseberry's conviction for the felony OUIL-3d


is based on two earlier convictions for OUIL.     In at least one


of them, defendant did not have counsel and did not validly


waive his right to counsel. To allow his conviction for OUIL­

3d to stand is to deny him a basic constitutional right that


legal precedent guarantees him. The majority's circumvention


of it is tenuously based and troubling. The conviction should


be reversed.


                     The Right to Counsel


     The Sixth Amendment right to counsel is unique in both


its importance and the protections afforded to it.      People v

Carpentier, 446 Mich 19, 29; 521 NW2d 195 (1994); see also


Custis v United States, 511 US 485; 114 S Ct 1732; 128 L Ed 2d


517 (1994).      For example, the United States Supreme Court has


limited    the    instances     in    which     a   judge    may   consider


convictions obtained in violation of this right.


     In    analyzing       whether    constitutionally       infirm    prior


convictions may be used to impeach a criminal defendant at


trial, the Court has noted that


     [t]he starting point in considering this question

     is, of course, Gideon v Wainwright, 372 US 335; 83

     S Ct 792; 9 L Ed 2d 799 [1963]. In that case the

     Court unanimously announced a clear and simple

     constitutional rule: In the absence of waiver, a

     felony conviction is invalid if it was obtained in

     a court that denied the defendant the help of a

     lawyer.[1] [Loper v Beto, 405 US 473, 481; 92 S Ct

     1014; 31 L Ed 2d 374 (1972).]


     The   Court     has    held     that   a   conviction    obtained    in


violation of a defendant's right to counsel is void.                  Burgett


v Texas, 389 US 109, 114; 88 S Ct 258; 19 L Ed 2d 319 (1967).


Such a conviction cannot be rendered valid by failure of the


person convicted to attack it on direct review.                Life is not


breathed into it when, as here, a defendant pleads guilty to


a charge based on it.         It is not voidable; it is void.            The


underlying error of the majority is in assuming the contrary.


As Burgett explains:



     1
      This rule applies to misdemeanor convictions that result

in actual imprisonment. Nichols v United States, 511 US 738,

749; 114 S Ct 1921; 128 L Ed 2d 745 (1994).


                                      2

           To permit a conviction obtained in violation

      of Gideon v Wainwright to be used against a person

      either to support guilt or enhance punishment for

      another offense is to erode the principle of that

      case.   Worse yet, since the defect in the prior

      conviction was denial of the right to counsel, the

      accused in effect suffers anew from the deprivation

      of that Sixth Amendment right.        [Id. at 115

      (internal citation omitted).]


Burgett clearly prohibits using a conviction obtained in


violation of a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to counsel to


support another conviction. 


                        United States v Tucker


      The United States Supreme Court relied on Burgett in


United States v Tucker, 404 US 443; 92 S Ct 589; 30 L Ed 2d


592 (1972).        Tucker held that a judge may not consider


convictions obtained in violation of Gideon when sentencing a


defendant for a later offense. At the time of sentencing, the


defendant     in   Tucker   had    not    claimed   that   his   earlier


convictions      were   constitutionally      infirm.      Instead,   he


challenged the earlier convictions in a collateral proceeding


several years later.        Id. at 445. 


      This precedent undercuts the majority's conclusion here


that defendants may not challenge the validity of convictions


that are used as a basis for later convictions unless they do


so   "timely."     The majority undertakes to distinguish Burgett


and Tucker on the facts.          But the factual differences do not


render their holdings inapplicable to this case.



                                     3

       The majority misapprehends my reasoning.                          I do not


contend       that   the    current   case       is    indistinguishable      from


Burgett and Tucker.              The fact of defendant's prior guilty


pleas differentiates it from them.                    However, the majority is


incorrect in concluding that this factual distinction is so


significant that it prevails over constitutional principles.


       Nor can I agree that defendant's acknowledgment that he


had twice before been convicted of OUIL was an acknowledgment


that       these    counselless    convictions          were   constitutionally


valid.       The transcript of the plea proceedings reveals that


defendant admitted two convictions of similar offenses in 1994


and 1996.          He was not asked about and he did not admit his


guilt of those offenses. There was no attempt to determine if


he had counsel in 1994 and in 1996 or had waived the right to


counsel.       Instead, like the defendant in Tucker, defendant


merely acknowledged the fact of the prior convictions.                           To


characterize         this   as    somehow    correcting            the   underlying


constitutional error ignores the significance of the right to


counsel and contradicts federal precedent establishing that


right. 


                             Tollett v Henderson


       The     majority's     reliance      on    Tollett      v    Henderson2   to


fortify its position is misplaced.                    Tollett, which held that



       2
           411 US 258; 93 S Ct 1602; 36 L Ed 2d 235 (1973).


                                       4

a   defendant       may    not    assert       a   constitutional        error     that


occurred before his counseled guilty plea, involved a direct


challenge      to    a    plea.     It     did      not    involve   a   collateral


challenge.           More     importantly,           its     discussion       of    the


significance of guilty pleas is unmistakedly limited to pleas


entered with the advice of counsel.                        Tollett does not stand


for the proposition that a guilty plea waives a challenge to


the validity of an earlier conviction when the challenge is


based on denial of the right to counsel.                         See Menna v New


York, 423 US 61, 62-63, n 2; 96 S Ct 241; 46 L Ed 2d 195


(1975). 


      Here     the       conviction      was       based    in   part    on   a    void


conviction or convictions.                 Tollett does not address that


situation.      It certainly does not hold that a void conviction


can be resuscitated by a counseled guilty plea in a later


case.


      As we discussed in People v New,3 the United States


Supreme Court clarified the holding of Tollett, saying that a


counseled guilty plea 


      "renders irrelevant those constitutional violations

      not   logically   inconsistent   with   the   valid

      establishment of guilt and which do not stand in

      the way of conviction, if factual guilt is validly

      established." [New, supra at 488, quoting Menna,

      supra (emphasis added).] 




      3
          427 Mich 482; 398 NW2d 358 (1986). 


                                           5

      In this case, defendant's conviction of OUIL-3d depends


on prior OUIL convictions, one or more of which were obtained


in violation of the right to counsel.               As further analysis


reveals, no precedent exists that sustains the majority's


implicit decision that defendant's factual guilt of his prior


counselless convictions was validly established. Tollett does


not   extend     to    collateral     challenges    of    underlying   void


convictions and is inapplicable.


                            People v Crawford


      The majority justifies its disposition by relying on this


Court's decision in People v Crawford, 417 Mich 607; 339 NW2d


630   (1983).         However,   it   misquotes    and    misapplies   that


decision.     There, the defendant moved to set aside his guilty


plea.     He asserted that he had not been advised of his rights


to    confront    his    accusers     and   not    to    be   compelled   to


incriminate himself.4        This Court held that a


        conviction  defective   under  Jaworski   can  be

        challenged by a timely motion by the defendant to

        quash the supplemental information or to strike

        from the supplemental information the defective

        conviction. To be timely, such a motion must be

        made before a defendant's plea of guilty or nolo



      4
      These rights are known as Boykin-Jaworski rights. Boykin

v Alabama, 395 US 238; 89 S Ct 1709; 23 L Ed 2d 274 (1969);

People v Jaworski, 387 Mich 21; 194 NW2d 868 (1972). Boykin

and Jaworski held that a defendant entering a guilty plea must

be advised by the trial judge of (1) the privilege against

self incrimination, (2) the right to trial by jury, and (3)

the right to confront one's accusers. The record must show

that the defendant was so informed.


                                       6

     contendere is accepted. [Id. at 613-614.]


     Crawford   did   not   hold    that   collateral      attacks   on


convictions obtained in violation of Sixth Amendment rights


are foreclosed if not raised before a plea of guilty on a


subsequent conviction. Crawford involved Jaworski rights. It


held that challenges to convictions obtained in violation of


those rights must be raised before a plea of guilty to a later


offense is accepted. 


     Contrary to the majority's interpretation, Crawford drew


a   careful   distinction   between     convictions       obtained   in


violation of a defendant's right to counsel and other defects


in guilty plea proceedings.         It made a narrow ruling that


explicitly noted limits on the use of convictions obtained


without the advice of counsel, citing Burgett and Tucker. Id.


at 614, n 14.   The majority misses the distinction. 


     The majority dismisses Crawford's reference to Jaworski


rights as dicta.      But on closer examination, it becomes


apparent that the holding cannot accurately be read to include


Sixth Amendment violations.        The Court of Appeals ruling in


the case affirmed Crawford's plea. It rejected his claim that


the underlying guilty plea was defective because Crawford had


not been advised of his rights to confront witnesses and avoid


self-incrimination.      Significantly,     the   Court    of   Appeals


stated that "only those prior guilty-plea convictions where



                                   7

the defendant was not represented by counsel should be excised


from    one's     prior   conviction       record    for       purposes    of    the


habitual offender statute."            See id. at 611. 


       Rather     than    affirming       because    no        right    exists    to


collaterally        challenge       the     plea,        Crawford        expressly


acknowledged the viability of a timely collateral challenge to


pleas obtained in violation of Jaworski rights.                            It then


concluded that "such a motion" was timely if made before the


trial    court    accepted    the     plea.     Id.       at    613-614.         This


conclusion is relevant only if a collateral challenge can be


made.     Reading these sentences in context, it becomes clear


that     the    first,    which    regards     challenges          to    defective


convictions under Jaworski, is part of the resolution of the


case. 


        This    conclusion    is    supported       by    Justice       Brickley's


accompanying opinion in which he stated:


             I concur in the result of the majority

        opinion, but cannot concur in the assertion that a

        conviction, although defective under Boykin v

        Alabama and People v Jaworski, but never directly

        attacked, may be challenged by a timely motion

        during an habitual offender proceeding.    I would

        hold that only those guilty pleas taken in

        violation of Gideon v Wainwright are subject to

        collateral attack in later habitual offender

        proceedings. [Id. at 614-615 (internal citations

        omitted).]


        Reading    the    sentences    regarding         Jaworski       rights    and


timeliness in the context of this concurrence confirms that



                                       8

the language regarding challenging Jaworski violations was an


integral limitation built into Crawford. Thus, I cannot agree


that Crawford's holding is so broad as to apply to all


collateral challenges.      Instead, given the importance of the


right to counsel, considerations of timeliness must yield when


a   conviction   has   been    obtained     in    violation   of   that


fundamental safeguard. 


                              Conclusion


     Given the clarity and simplicity of the constitutional


rule involved in this case, the majority should not be shy


about applying it.     The majority has found no United States


Supreme Court opinion that qualifies or diminishes the Court's


holding in Gideon.     The instant case should not be used to


plant precedent in Michigan law that may later be cited to


justify watering down the constitutional rule enunciated by


Gideon,   reaffirmed   by   Burgett,    Loper,    and   Tucker,    among


others, and adopted by this Court in People v Moore, 391 Mich


426; 216 NW2d 770 (1974). 


     In deciding the matter before us, the majority carves


serious inroads into the Sixth Amendment constitutional right


to counsel in Michigan.       It relies erroneously on Crawford to


circumvent the well-established principle that convictions


obtained where a defendant was without counsel and did not


waive his right to counsel are void.             Yet, as demonstrated



                                   9

above, Crawford does not apply to convictions obtained in


violation of the Sixth Amendment. 


     I   would    remand    this   case   to   the    trial   court   with


instructions to reverse defendant's conviction.               Because at


least    one     of   his   two    earlier     OUIL     convictions     is


constitutionally infirm, hence void, he cannot be convicted of


OUIL-3d. 





                                   10