Opinion ID: 842329
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: how the trial court calculated defendant's sentence

Text: The case before us demonstrates the distinction. Defendant did not admit the facts necessary to attribute a score to OVs 1, 2, and 3. And the jury made no specific findings of fact regarding these OVs. Thus, defendant's sentence was based on judicial fact-finding, in violation of the bright-line rule. His sentence should have been based solely on his PRV level. Defendant's PRV level was 2 points, which placed him in the B-I cell. The B-I cell provides a minimum sentence range of zero to 11 months for a second-offense habitual offender. MCL 777.65; MCL 777.21(3)(a). This is an intermediate sanction cell. MCL 769.34(4)(a). Therefore, defendant was entitled to an intermediate sanction cell sentence. As discussed earlier, his maximum sentence was supposed to be 11 months in jail. The court could not properly impose a maximum sentence exceeding 11 months without using facts that defendant had not admitted or that were not proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. But the trial judge made such findings of fact to score OVs 1, 2, and 3. These judicial findings increased defendant's maximum sentence because they moved him into a straddle cell. At that point, he was no longer entitled to an intermediate sanction cell sentence that would be capped at 11 months in jail. Because the judge's findings of fact increased defendant's maximum sentence, they violated defendant's Sixth Amendment rights under Apprendi. Defendant suffered greater stigma through an increased sentence than the stigma he would have faced had his sentence been based solely on his PRV level. This increased stigma and punishment undermine the basic concepts of the right to a trial by jury and defeat the intent of the Framers to ensure a publicly controlled judiciary. Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 483-484, 120 S.Ct. 2348. Scoring the OVs in this case was the functional equivalent of convicting defendant of a different criminal offense. Although he had been convicted of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, the trial court sentenced defendant for an assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder (1) in which the victim was touched by a weapon, [14] (2) in which the defendant possessed a potentially lethal weapon, [15] and (3) in which the victim suffered life threatening or permanent incapacitating injury. [16] Just as in Ring, the Sixth Amendment requires that the jury find the facts that enhanced defendant's sentence beyond a reasonable doubt. Ring, 536 U.S. at 609, 122 S.Ct. 2428. Because this did not occur, defendant's Sixth Amendment rights were violated by the sentence imposed.