Opinion ID: 842329
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: at what point may the ovs be scored?

Text: The majority relies on MCL 777.21 to argue that no defendant is entitled to a sentence in Michigan until after the sentencing court scores the OVs. This argument withers when examined in light of the Blakely line of cases. The holding there is easily recited: Any facts, aside from past convictions, that increase a defendant's maximum sentence must either be admitted by the defendant or proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Booker, 543 U.S. at 244, 125 S.Ct. 738. The majority avoids directly applying this central tenet. Its insistence that a defendant would or could have received a longer sentence under the traditional application of the sentencing scheme is irrelevant. A defendant is entitled to the maximum sentence authorized by his or her past convictions, the facts he or she admitted, and the facts established by the jury's verdict. See id. A defendant's sentence cannot properly be based on facts that the judge later found using a preponderance of the evidence standard. Hence, if the judge determines the facts used to score the OVs, the OVs must be scored after it is determined whether a defendant falls into an intermediate sanction cell. The majority's reliance on MCL 777.21 does not obviate this central tenet. This statute is similar to the statute in Ring. There, the judge was directed to conduct a separate sentencing hearing to determine the existence of specified circumstances in order to decide whether to impose the death penalty or life imprisonment. Ring, 536 U.S. at 592, 122 S.Ct. 2428. The fact that it is possible to impose a longer sentence under the sentencing scheme is not relevant. A defendant is entitled to a sentence based solely on the jury's verdict and the defendant's admissions and criminal history. The Supreme Court explained: In an effort to reconcile its capital sentencing system with the Sixth Amendment as interpreted by Apprendi, Arizona first restates the Apprendi majority's portrayal of Arizona's system: Ring was convicted of first-degree murder, for which Arizona law specifies death or life imprisonment as the only sentencing options, see Ariz.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 13-1105(C) (West 2001); Ring was therefore sentenced within the range of punishment authorized by the jury verdict. See Brief for Respondent 9-19. This argument overlooks Apprendi 's instruction that the relevant inquiry is one not of form, but of effect. 530 U.S. at 494, 120 S.Ct. 2348. In effect, the required finding [of an aggravated circumstance] expose[d] [Ring] to a greater punishment than that authorized by the jury's guilty verdict. [ Id. at 603-604, 120 S.Ct. 2348.] The same is true of the Michigan sentencing guidelines. It does not matter that, as in defendant's case, there are two possible maximum sentences for the offense of which defendant was convicted. Defendant must receive the maximum sentence that is supported by the jury's verdict, his prior record, and his admissions alone. [17] Id. But that did not occur in this case. Instead, he was given a longer sentence than was authorized by the jury's verdict. [18] For that reason, the sentence violated the Sixth Amendment. Id. at 609, 122 S.Ct. 2428. VII. A MAXIMUM BY ANY OTHER NAME Here and in People v. Harper , [19] the majority strives to convince the reader that the maximum sentence that MCL 769.34(4)(a) sets for intermediate sanction cells is really a minimum sentence. To arrive at this conclusion, it takes the reader through what might be mistaken for a shell game of statutory language. But a reading of the pertinent statutes as they are written undermines the central support for the majority's decision to affirm defendant's sentence despite the Supreme Court's remand. For example, MCL 769.34(4)(a) provides: If the upper limit of the recommended minimum sentence range for a defendant determined under the sentencing guidelines set forth in chapter XVII is 18 months or less, the court shall impose an intermediate sanction unless the court states on the record a substantial and compelling reason to sentence the individual to the jurisdiction of the department of corrections. An intermediate sanction may include a jail term that does not exceed the upper limit of the recommended minimum sentence range or 12 months, whichever is less. [Emphasis added.] The language of this statute is not ambiguous. It mandates that the sentencing court impose an intermediate sanction when a defendant falls into an appropriate cell, unless the court makes judicial findings of fact to support a departure. MCL 769.34(4)(a). It also defines the outer limit of an intermediate sanction: 12 months in jail. Because this is the highest sentence a defendant may face, it is a maximum sentence. Without judicial fact-finding, the trial judge is not authorized to impose so much as a 13-month sentence. [20] Even the majority seems to concede that, considering only the language of MCL 769.34(4)(a), 12 months is the maximum sentence. But it believes that this conclusion changes when MCL 769.34(4)(a) is viewed in light of other sentencing statutes. The majority first relies on MCL 769.8(1), which provides: When a person is convicted for the first time for committing a felony and the punishment prescribed by law for that offense may be imprisonment in a state prison, the court imposing sentence shall not fix a definite term of imprisonment, but shall fix a minimum term, except as otherwise provided in this chapter. The maximum penalty provided by law shall be the maximum sentence in all cases except as provided in this chapter and shall be stated by the judge in imposing the sentence. [Emphasis added.] The majority focuses on the language [t]he maximum penalty provided by law shall be the maximum sentence in all cases. . . . But it dismisses as inapplicable the fact that this phrase is modified by  except as provided in this chapter . . . . The Legislature twice makes clear that there are exceptions to the general rule stated in the statute. MCL 769.8(1). By treating these clauses as irrelevant, the majority ignores language chosen by the Legislature and rewrites the statute. The majority concludes that the clauses must not refer to intermediate sanction cells. It reasons that the provisions creating intermediate sanction cells were enacted after the language contained in MCL 769.8(1) and that the clauses must refer only to preexisting exceptions. Not only does this defy logic, it is unsupported by any authority whatsoever. The majority's new rule of statutory construction would render it nearly impossible to read statutes together. Someone reading two statutes that seem to discuss the same subject would be obliged to review the date of enactment of each statute to see which came first. If the language in the earlier statute made the two relate to one another, that language would have to be ignored. Hence, any attempt to read two statutes together must be accompanied by a history lesson. Such an odd requirement seems ill-advised. Not only does the majority's new rule create confusion, it contradicts the majority's supposed plain language approach to statutory interpretation. The majority effectively rewrites MCL 769.8(1) to read: When a person is convicted for the first time for committing a felony and the punishment prescribed by law for that offense may be imprisonment in a state prison, the court imposing sentence shall not fix a definite term of imprisonment, but shall fix a minimum term, except as otherwise provided in this chapter ( but only if this exception predates this statute ). The maximum penalty provided by law shall be the maximum sentence in all cases except as provided in this chapter ( but not if that exception was enacted after 1927 ) and shall be stated by the judge in imposing the sentence. This Court has repeatedly admonished that a court must not read into a statute something that the Legislature did not put there. AFSCME v. Detroit, 468 Mich. 388, 412, 662 N.W.2d 695 (2003). [21] But the majority has done just that in this case. Does the majority now abandon this classic rule of statutory interpretation? The majority notes that, under MCL 769.8(1), there are cases in which the sentencing court will not fix the minimum sentence and in which the absolute maximum sentence will not apply. It notes that other provisions in the chapter of the Code of Criminal Procedure in which MCL 769.8(1) appears state the exceptions to the general rule. MCL 769.34 is in that chapter of the code. And MCL 769.34(4)(a) provides that the sentencing court will set the maximum sentence rather than the minimum in cases involving intermediate sanction cells. Therefore, far from indicating that intermediate sanction cells set minimum sentences, when read together, these statutes demonstrate a legislative intent that intermediate sanction cells serve as an exception to the general rule. The Legislature intended intermediate sanction cells to dictate a maximum sentence. MCL 769.34(4)(a); MCL 769.8(1). The majority also turns to MCL 769.9, which provides: (1) The provisions of this chapter relative to indeterminate sentences shall not apply to a person convicted for the commission of an offense for which the only punishment prescribed by law is imprisonment for life. (2) In all cases where the maximum sentence in the discretion of the court may be imprisonment for life or any number or term of years, the court may impose a sentence for life or may impose a sentence for any term of years. If the sentence imposed by the court is for any term of years, the court shall fix both the minimum and the maximum of that sentence in terms of years or fraction thereof, and sentences so imposed shall be considered indeterminate sentences. The court shall not impose a sentence in which the maximum penalty is life imprisonment with a minimum for a term of years included in the same sentence. (3) In cases involving a major controlled substance offense for which the court is directed by law to impose a sentence which cannot be less than a specified term of years nor more than a specified term of years, the court in imposing the sentence shall fix the length of both the minimum and maximum sentence within those specified limits, in terms of years or fraction thereof, and the sentence so imposed shall be considered an indeterminate sentence. The majority argues that, because this statute contains nothing to indicate that the sanctions are determinate, it supports a reading of intermediate sanction cell sentences as minimum sentences. But a reference to MCL 769.9 shows the fallacy of this reasoning. MCL 769.9(1) limits the courts' ability to impose intermediate sanction cell sentences. It provides that intermediate sanctions may not be used for offenses for which the only punishment prescribed by law is imprisonment for life. It makes no other limitation, and no other should be read into it. The majority claims that nowhere does the Legislature state that intermediate sanctions are an exception to the Michigan scheme of indeterminate sentencing. But it is more accurate to assert that nowhere does the Legislature indicate this except in the statutes creating intermediate sanctions. MCL 769.34(4)(a) makes clear that the maximum sentence possible, absent substantial and compelling reasons to exceed it, is 12 months in jail. MCL 769.31(b) also specifically allows for jail sentences. The Legislature wrote determinate sentences into these statutes. There would be no point in endeavoring to do it more clearly. And there was no need to do it anywhere else. In the final analysis, the point is irrelevant. What matters is not whether the statute establishes intermediate sanction cell sentences as indeterminate or determinate sentences. What is crucial is whether a defendant's maximum sentence can be increased as a result of judicial fact-finding. Cunningham, 127 S.Ct. at 868. It is not significant that defendant's sentence in this case was zero to 11 months in jail or simply 11 months in jail. In either case, the Sixth Amendment would be violated by judicial fact-finding that increases the maximum sentence above the 11-month mark. Id.