Court Opinion

ID: 9743124
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:25:56.407147+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:39.523419
License: Public Domain

Shepherd, P.J.
(concurring in part and dissenting in part). I agree with the majority’s decision to remand this case to permit the prosecutor to establish a factual basis for the plea of guilty to felony-firearm. I also agree that the convictions for armed robbery and bank robbery do not constitute double jeopardy. However, I would reach the latter result by a different route than does the majority, since I disagree with its apparent holding that a defendant may be convicted of armed robbery and bank robbery for the very same conduct.
In People v Robideau, 419 Mich 458, 486; 355 NW2d 592 (1984), the Supreme Court held that punishment under more than one provision of the Penal Code is permitted if the Legislature so intended. The Court stated that "[statutes prohibiting conduct that is violative of distinct social norms can generally be viewed as separate and amenable to permitting multiple punishments”. Id., 487. Where the evidence of legislative intent is inconclusive, "the rule of lenity requires the con*372slusion that separate punishments were not intended”. Id., 488.1
The majority correctly note that violation of the bank robbery statute does not necessarily require a larceny from a person or the use of a weapon. MCL 750.531; MSA 28.799. It is also beyond question that the statute is aimed, in part, at protection of repositories of valuables. People v Ferguson, 60 Mich App 302, 305; 230 NW2d 406 (1975). Nevertheless, a plain reading of the statute discloses that it encompasses two distinct offenses, namely, bank robbery involving assaultive conduct and safecracking. People v Adams, 128 Mich App 25, 30; 339 NW2d 687 (1983). Where the bank robbery is of the former variety, it and armed robbery "are of the same class or category”. Id. The policies underlying the statutory prohibitions of bank robbery and armed robbery substantially overlap, insofar as both sections concern protection of individuals from the use of violence to obtain property. Absent a clear indication that the Legislature intended multiple punishment, Robideau, supra, we should not sanction application of both provisions to the same conduct. Rather, the prosecutor must, in the exercise of his discretion, choose one or the other. People v Thomas, 118 Mich App 667; 325 NW2d 536 (1982), lv den 417 Mich 1000 (1983).
In the instant case, however, defendant’s convictions of bank robbery and armed robbery did not arise from the same conduct. The bank robbery *373was complete when defendant and the co-perpetrator attempted to rob the armored car. Defendant committed, or aided and abetted in the commission of, an armed robbery when he or the co-perpetrator took the guard’s gun. This was a larcenous act separate from the attempted robbery of the armored car. Where there is a taking apart from the bank robbery, multiple convictions do not violate the double jeopardy clause. Adams, supra, p 32. Hence, there is no need even to consider whether two such convictions for the same conduct would constitute double jeopardy.

 " 'When Congress leaves to the Judiciary the task of imputing to Congress an undeclared will, the ambiguity should be resolved in favor of lenity. And this not out of any sentimental consideration, or for want of sympathy with the purpose of Congress in proscribing evil or antisocial conduct. It may fairly be said to be a presupposition of our law to resolve doubts in the enforcement of a penal code against the imposition of a harsher punishment.’ ” Bell v United States, 349 US 81, 83; 75 S Ct 620; 99 L Ed 905 (1955), quoted in People v Gilbert, 414 Mich 191, 211; 324 NW2d 834 (1982).