If this opinion indicates that it is “FOR PUBLICATION,” it is subject to 

revision until final publication in the Michigan Appeals Reports.

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

C O U R T O F A P P E A L S

PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN,

Plaintiff-Appellee,

FOR PUBLICATION

February 21, 2019

v No. 342325

Washtenaw Circuit Court

ROGAN EDWARD LAMPE, LC No. 14-000322-FH

Defendant-Appellant.

Before: M. J. KELLY, P.J., and SERVITTO and BOONSTRA, JJ.

BOONSTRA, J. (concurring).

I concur fully with the majority opinion. I write separately to elaborate on the majority

opinion’s use of the term “out-of-guidelines sentence,” rather than the more commonly-used

term, “departure.”

The term “departure” derives from an earlier time when the sentencing guidelines were 

mandatory, such that substantial and compelling reasons were required before a sentencing court 

could deviate from them.1 Although the term “departure” has multiple definitions, principal 

among them is that a “departure” is a “divergence or deviation, as from a standard or rule.” See 

Random House Webster’s College Dictionary (2d ed), p 357. Since our Supreme Court has held 

that the sentencing guidelines are now “advisory only,” People v Lockridge, 498 Mich 358, 365, 

399; 870 NW2d 502 (2015), or “merely advisory,” id. at 395 n 31,2 and has struck down the 

 1 MCL 769.34(3) formerly provided that

A court may depart from the appropriate sentence range established under the 

sentencing guidelines set forth in chapter XVII if the court has a substantial and 

compelling reason for that departure and states on the record the reasons for 

departure.

2 Our Supreme Court has subsequently reiterated those descriptions and has additionally referred 

to the sentencing guidelines as “fully advisory,” “always advisory,” “purely advisory, “advisory 
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substantial and compelling reason standard, id. at 391, I find the “departure” nomenclature to be 

of questionable continuing utility, and suggest that sentences such as defendant’s are more 

accurately referred to as “out-of-guidelines sentences.”

This is not a mere semantic quibble; my reading of Lockridge and its progeny leads me to 

conclude that some of the caselaw regarding “departure” sentences, which continues often to be 

cited by litigants and this Court, is no longer applicable. Most notably, I believe that our 

Supreme Court’s dictate that we review an out-of-guidelines sentence for “reasonableness,” 

Lockridge, 498 Mich at 392, in accordance with the principle of proportionality, People v 

Steanhouse, 500 Mich 453, 459; 902 NW2d 327 NW2d (2017), has eliminated not only the 

requirement that a trial court articulate substantial and compelling reasons for “departing” from 

the sentencing guidelines, but also the requirement that the trial court articulate its reasons for the 

“extent of the departure.” See People v Smith, 482 Mich 292, 314; 754 NW2d 284 (2008).

This does not diminish a trial court’s continuing obligation to “justify the [out-ofguidelines] sentence imposed in order to facilitate appellate review, which includes an 

explanation of why the sentence imposed is more proportionate to the offense and the offender 

than a different sentence would have been.” People v Dixon-Bey, 321 Mich App 490, 525; 909

NW2d 458 (2017) (quotation marks and citation omitted). Nor does it diminish a trial court’s 

obligation to consult the guidelines and to take them into account when imposing a sentence. 

See Steanhouse, 500 Mich at 474-475 (“We repeat our directive from Lockridge that the 

guidelines ‘remain a highly relevant consideration in a trial court’s exercise of sentencing 

discretion’ that trial courts ‘ “must consult” ’ and ‘ “take into account when sentencing,” ’ ”), 

quoting Lockridge, 498 Mich at 391, in turn quoting United States v Booker, 543 US 220, 264; 

125 S Ct 738; 160 L Ed 2d 621 (2005). But “ ‘the key test is whether the sentence is 

proportionate to the seriousness of the matter, not whether it departs from or adheres to the 

guidelines’ recommended range.’ ” Steanhouse, 500 Mich at 475, quoting People v Milbourn, 

425 Mich 630, 661; 461 NW2d 1 (1990). Indeed, “[r]ather than impermissibly measuring 

proportionality by reference to deviations from the guidelines, our principle of proportionality 

requires ‘sentences imposed by the trial court to be proportionate to the seriousness of the 

circumstances surrounding the offense and the offender.’ ” Id. 500 Mich at 474, quoting 

Milbourn, 435 Mich at 636. And an out-of-guidelines sentence does not give rise to any

presumption of unreasonableness. Id.

 

in all applications, and “advisory in all cases,” People v Steanhouse, 500 Mich 453, 459, 466-

467, 469-470, 473; 902 NW2d 327 NW2d (2017).
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Consequently, I would propose that we simply consider whether the sentence imposed by 

the trial court was reasonable, in accordance with the dictates of Lockridge and Steanhouse, and

that we jettison the now-antiquated references to “departures” or the “extent of the departure.”3

/s/ Mark T. Boonstra

 3 I note that even our Supreme Court has continued to refer to “departures.” See, e.g., 

Steanhouse, 500 Mich at 460-462; People v Skinner, 502 Mich 89, 134 n 25; 917 NW2d 292 

(2018) (in dicta). Old habits are hard to break.