Court Opinion

ID: 9593118
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:19:53.439202+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:25:31.013887
License: Public Domain

Michael J. Kelly, P.J.
(dissenting). I respectfully dissent. I would affirm. I agree that the standard of review is for an abuse of discretion. For me, it is a Hobson’s choice, one that is too close to call, and I therefore cannot find an abuse of discretion.
The juvenile sentencing alternative of incarcera*258tion until the age of twenty-one is not a sufficient societal response to the viciousness of the crimes committed, and yet the adult alternative of mandatory life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for a sixteen-year-old is so enormously retributive as to strain any sentencing judge’s Solomonic powers of disposition. Unfortunately there is no potential third alternative, such as that recently fashioned by the Supreme Court in People v Bullock, 440 Mich 15; 485 NW2d 866 (1992).
In this case, the trial court found that: (1) defendant was physically and mentally mature; (2) the offense was of a serious nature; (3) defendant’s behavior was not likely to disrupt the rehabilitation of other juveniles in the treatment program; (4) defendant’s behavior was not likely to render him dangerous to the public at age twenty-one; (5) defendant was more likely to be rehabilitated through the services and facilities available in a maximum security juvenile program rather than through the services available in an adult program; (6) the best interests of defendant and the public would be served by placing him on probation and committing him to a juvenile facility; and (7) the prosecution had failed to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the best interests of defendant and the public would be served by sentencing him as an adult.
After reviewing the testimony presented at the juvenile sentencing hearing, I do not believe that the trial court’s findings of fact were clearly erroneous, and therefore I can find no abuse of discretion. Although there was conflicting testimony concerning a number of the factors, there is support in the record for each finding made by the trial court. Obviously, the decision is a close one, *259but the trial court’s benefit of seeing and hearing the defendant and the witnesses on both sides of the issues is persuasive.
I would affirm.