Court Opinion

ID: 9689416
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:30:46.314874+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:47.938935
License: Public Domain

Jansen, P.J.
(concurring in part and dissenting in part). I would follow People v Lino (After Remand), 213 Mich App 89; 539 NW2d 545 (1995), not because I am bound by Administrative Order No. 1994-4, but because I believe that Lino correctly resolved that a parolable life sentence is a greater penalty than a long term of years. Although the majority faults the statistical analysis employed in Lino, the majority offers no alternative analysis of its own. Rather, the majority relies on a portion of a sentence contained in People v Merriweather, 447 Mich 799, 809; 527 NW2d 460 (1994), that a “defendant might be better off with a sentence of life,” which was not a holding in that case. In any event, a defendant serving a parolable life term also might not be better off with a sentence of life because prisoners serving a sentence of life with the possibility of parole are rarely ever paroled.
*808In People v Moore, 432 Mich 311, 317; 439 NW2d 684 (1989), our Supreme Court stated that “[o]n its face, the stated penalty for second-degree murder (life, or any term of years) indicates that a term of years is a lesser penalty than life.” The Supreme Court further stated that there are, therefore, two types of sentences that a judge may impose upon a person convicted of second-degree murder — a sentence of life in prison, or a sentence of a term of years less than life. Id., p 319. The Court held that a sentence of a term of years must be an indeterminate sentence less than life and it must be a sentence that the defendant has a reasonable possibility of actually serving. Id., p 329; accord People v Rushlow, 437 Mich 149; 468 NW2d 487 (1991).
Although this Court held in People v Kelly, 213 Mich App 8; 539 NW2d 538 (1995), that the Supreme Court’s decision in Moore was overruled in Merriweather, the Supreme Court said nothing in Merriweather about overruling Moore. If the Supreme Court intended to overrule Moore and the substantial body of case law that has followed it in this Court, then the Supreme Court should explicitly say so.
There is nothing “counterintuitive” about holding that a term of parolable life is a longer term of imprisonment than a long term of years. If anything is counterintuitive, it is the holding that a life term is something other than a life term when the reality is that most prisoners serving a term of parolable life are never paroled. Further, the real problem with these cases is not an improper statistical analysis, but the misconception that coming under the jurisdiction of the parole board and actually being paroled are the same thing. These are actually entirely different prospects because few prisoners serving parolable life sentences are ever paroled. Merriweather, supra, pp 813-814 (Cavanagh, C.J., dissenting).
Finally, I question whether Lino is even applicable to this case. In the present case, defendant is arguing that his sentence of life with the possibility of parole violates the principle of proportionality. Although acknowledging that the sentencing guidelines do not apply to habitual offender sentences, defendant claims that his sentence is well outside the guidelines’ range of 96 to 240 months for the underlying conviction of assault with intent to rob while armed. Defendant then notes that a parolable life term constitutes just that, a life term, and that the sentence was, therefore, the longest possible that could be imposed for this conviction. Defendant does not claim that the sentencing judge was operating under a misconception of the law, as was the case in Lino. See Lino, supra, pp 95, 98. This Court intimated no opinion regarding whether the defendant’s sentence of life imprisonment for second-degree murder was proportionate in Lino. Id., p 99.
Defendant claims that his sentence of a life term is disproportionate because he was sentenced to the longest possible sentence, the offense was not the worst of its type, and he does not have the worst possible criminal history. However, I would find that defendant’s sentence is proportionate in this case. Defendant was twenty-two years old when he was sentenced. He had one prior felony conviction (felonious assault), a horrendous juvenile record (sixteen juvenile adjudications according to the presentence report), and he received numerous major misconducts while *809imprisoned for his felonious assault conviction. The facts of this offense are that defendant grabbed the victim by her hair and held a knife to her throat. He then pinned her against a pickup truck after demanding her money. Defendant grabbed the victim by her throat and began to unbutton her pants. The victim was able to push defendant away, but he punched her in her face with his fist. The victim was able to turn away, at which time defendant stabbed her in the back with his knife.
I would find that, notwithstanding that defendant’s life sentence is the longest possible, defendant’s sentence does not violate the principle of proportionality set forth in People v Milbourn, 435 Mich 630; 461 NW2d 1 (1990). The test of proportionality is whether the sentence is proportionate to the background of the offender and the circumstances surrounding the offense, not whether the sentence is the longest possible permitted by law.
I concur with the majority’s decision to affirm defendant’s convictions and the sentence for his conviction of assault with intent to commit great bodily harm less than murder. However, I would also affirm defendant’s sentences for his conviction of assault with intent to rob while armed.