Court Opinion

ID: 9688586
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 17:57:20.278449+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:40.516333
License: Public Domain

J. H. Gillis, P. J.
(dissenting). I cannot subscribe to an opinion which holds that one who kisses a 10-year-old girl and inserts his tongue in her mouth is not guilty of taking indecent and improper liberties as a matter of law. A standard jury instruction, approved by the Supreme Court, is found in People v. Hicks (1893), 98 Mich 86, and People v. Noyes (1950), 328 Mich 207, 211:
“Indecent and improper liberties with the person of such child means such liberties as the common sense of society would regard as indecent and improper. No particular definition is given by the statute of what constitutes this crime. The common sense of the community as well as the sense of decency and propriety and morality which most people entertain is sufficient to apply the statute to each particular case and point out what particular conduct is rendered criminal by it, that is, by the statute.”
Whether defendant’s conduct in the instant case “is not such a variation from permissible noncriminal conduct to justify characterization of the defendant’s action as violative of this statute” is a question for the trier of fact.
I vote to affirm.