Sweet

May a statute which increases punishment on a new drunk driving conviction where the defendant has incurred prior convictions for that offense within seven years be applied to prior convictions entered when five years was the maximum period in which prior convictions could be used for that purpose? We find that it may. Defendants Sweet and Crook appealed to the superior court appellate department from the municipal court’s denial of their challenges to use of prior drunk driving convictions to increase their punishment on the present convictions of Vehicle Code section 23152. 1 The appellate department consolidated both cases for purposes of its opinion, affirmed the municipal court’s ruling, and we granted appellants’ request to certify the question to this court for resolution. (Cal. Rules of Court,.rule 63.)

At the time appellants entered pleas which led to their prior convictions for driving under the influence (former § 23102, subd. (a)), the law provided for enhanced punishment of a person previously convicted of drunk driving within five years of the current offense (former § 23102, subd. (d)). In 1981, the Legislature redefined the offense of driving while…