Court Opinion

ID: 9687948
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:54:54.182719+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:33.650231
License: Public Domain

Adams, J.
(dissenting). The legislature addressed itself to one aspect of the problem of disparity of sentences when it enacted PA 1965, No 73 (MCLA § 769.11b; Stat Ann 1970 Cum Supp § 28.1083[2] ).* Previous to the enactment of this statute, it was a matter of discretion with the sentencing judge to grant credit against a sentence for time served in jail prior to sentencing. Some judges, in sentencing, took into account time served in jail prior to sentencing, while others, as exemplified by this case, did not.
I agree that Act 73 is prospective in its application. All defendants sentenced after March 31, 1966, the effective date of Act 73, will receive credit against their sentence for time served in jail prior to sentencing.
The disparity with which we are here concerned is the difference in treatment accorded to those defendants who, prior to March 31, 1966, could not make bail and those defendants who either were able to make bail or who received from the trial judge credit for time served prior to sentence when sentence was imposed.
In the recent case of Williams v. Illinois (1970), 399 US 235 (90 S Ct 2018, 26 L Ed 2d 586), the Supreme Court of the United States had occasion, speaking through Chief Justice Warren Burger, to reenunciate this basic principle:
“In the years since the Griffin [v. Illinois (1956), 351 US 12 (76 S Ct 611, 100 L Ed 883)] case the Court has had frequent occasion to reaffirm allegiance to the basic command that justice be applied equally to all persons.”
*61In Williams, the Supreme Court of the United States held that a state may not constitutionally imprison a defendant who is financially unable to pay a fine beyond the maximum duration fixed by statute. The result in this case is to impose an excessive sentence of 11 months and 13 days upon this defendant because he was not admitted to bail prior to trial. The failure of the trial court to extend credit for this period of time served in jail by defendant has resulted in disparity of treatment as between him and those defendants who were able to make bail prior to the adoption and effective date of Act 73 and as to all defendants sentenced after Act 73 became effective.
In the case of Moore v. Parole Board (1967), 379 Mich 624, this Court held that a sentencing judge does not have unlimited discretion in determining whether to grant or refuse credit for time served under a void sentence. In my opinion in that case at p 643, I noted that Judge Sobeloff, in Patton v. North Carolina (1967), 381 F2d 636, had said:
“ ‘The principle of fair dealing which impels judges in passing sentence to take into account the time a defendant was deprived of his liberty while awaiting trial, Dunn v. United States (CA 4, 1967), 376 F2d 191, insists even more inexorably that he shall not be finessed out of credit for time he was forced to serve under an invalid sentence.’ ”
By Act 73, the principle of fair dealing which impels judges in passing sentence to take into account the time a defendant was deprived of his liberty while awaiting trial, has been written into the law of this state. As a matter of constitutional right as it relates to the doctrines of equal protection and due process, I would hold that if a judge was not impelled to give credit for time served prior to sentencing, the sentence was erroneous.-
*62I -would remand to the Recorder’s Court of the City of Detroit with instructions, in accordance with the excessive sentence statute (MCLA § 769.24 [Stat Ann 1954 Rev § 28.1094]), to that court to credit defendant’s sentence to the extent of 11 months and 13 days served by defendant in the Wayne County jail while awaiting his sentencing in the instant cause.
T. M. Kavanagh and T. Gr. Kavanagh, JJ., concurred with Adams, J.

 In PA 1965, No 67, the legislature dealt with the problem of time served under a void sentence.