Court Opinion

ID: 9723390
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:13:30.361487+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:48.255372
License: Public Domain

Lindemer, J.
(dissenting). I agree with the majority that "[possession of the heroin in this case was that necessary to its delivery” and "[w]hen the jury found defendant guilty of unlawful delivery of this heroin on the evidence in this record they necessarily found him in possession of it”. Under these conditions, there was but one offense — delivery of heroin — which should not have been divided into separate counts.
However, I would vacate the possession conviction and affirm the delivery conviction. Under its instructions, the jury had to find defendant both possessed and delivered the heroin in order to return its guilty verdict. Rather than permitting an either/or verdict, the instruction required a finding of both conditions. This did not, as the majority says, invade "the province of the jury to determine whether or not each element of both crimes had been proven”. The instructions required a finding that each element of both crimes had been proven before the jury could return a guilty verdict.
It should also be noted that there were no objections to the instructions. Although we have reviewed unobjected-to instructions, the more usual procedure should be similar to that used in People v Alcala, 396 Mich 99, 100; 237 NW2d 475 *315(1976). Because of the analysis above and a review of the record, we believe there are "no unusual circumstances and no manifest and serious errors on the basis of which appellate intervention absent preservation of error could be predicated”. Also see People v Hall, 396 Mich 650; 242 NW2d 377 (1976).
Coleman, J., concurred with Lindemer, J.