The writ may not be used to attack the validity of the conviction or sentence of a person who has been adjudged guilty of an offense in a court of record and has exhausted the remedy of appeal. Section 46-22-101(2), MCA.
Application of the statutory bar in § 46-22-101(2), MCA, unconstitutionally suspends the constitutional guarantee in Article II, Section 19 of the Montana Constitution to an individual incarcerated on a facially invalid sentence, i.e., a sentence that exceeds the statutory minimum for the crime for which the offender was convicted or that violates the constitutional right to be free from double jeopardy. With respect to a facially invalid sentence, the procedural bar of res judicata (§ 46-22-101(2), MCA above), does not apply and the ends of justice demand that we not permit a facially invalid sentence to stand. State v. Southwick, 2007 MT 257, ¶ 19, 339 Mont. 281, 169 P.3d 698.