Court Opinion

ID: 9593016
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:18:52.882771+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:18.315541
License: Public Domain

M. J. Kelly, P.J.
(dissenting). Judge Hood’s opinion points out the reaction of society or hu*69manity to crime. I do not think we can assess the emotional impact on our human sensibilities to measure whether our consciences are shocked under the People v Coles, 417 Mich 523; 339 NW2d 440 (1983), standard. The last thousand or so murders I have reviewed on appeal were each a different shock and one a more consummate revulsion from man’s inhumanity to man than the next. I never met a murderer I liked.
I do not delude myself that sentences, no matter how long, or for eternity, or for execution, have any measurable deterrent effect. Therefore, the question is, do judges try for a reasonably consistent sentencing alternative or do they assume the mantle of the Almighty and pretend to remedy the criminal justice system’s breakdown in coping with crime by grandstanding ad hoc on gross numbers? I continue to endorse the majority opinion in People v Oscar Moore, 164 Mich App 378; 417 NW2d 508 (1987). This state and this country prove daily that crime is always with us. Impossible sentences are not going to repeal reality. I disagree with the panel’s subscribing to People v Harden, 166 Mich App 106; 420 NW2d 136 (1988), and suggest that a firing squad would be a more pristine alternative. What good are sentencing guidelines if random aberrant sentences are not struck down? For my part I will say my conscience is shocked as it was in People v Oscar Moore; People v Guevara, 159 Mich App 542; 407 NW2d 38 (1987) (Kelly, J., dissenting), People v Hughes, 160 Mich App 117; 407 NW2d 638 (1987) (Kelly, J., dissenting), People v Crawford, 161 Mich App 77; 409 NW2d 729 (1987) (Kelly, J., dissenting), and People v Sanders, 163 Mich App 606; 415 NW2d 218 (1987).
I would remand for resentencing.