Court Opinion

ID: 9718567
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:27:17.006085+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:00.396749
License: Public Domain

Ryan, J.
(dissenting). I dissent from the Court’s decision to review the judgment of the Court of Appeals in this case and its consequent reversal of the defendant’s eight-year-old conviction of manslaughter.
The record evidence is that the defendant shot and killed his victim, Stanley Bolds, on October 13, 1971. Charged with murder, the defendant was permitted to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter, albeit over the objection of the prosecuting attorney who wished to proceed on the murder charge. Following the plea of guilty of manslaughter and entry of a judgment thereon, the prosecuting attorney appealed the trial court’s decision to allow the guilty plea to the lesser charge. After obtaining an unsatisfactory result in the Court of Appeals, the prosecutor succeeded in obtaining an order from this Court reversing the defendant’s plea-based conviction and returning the matter for further proceedings. Genesee Prosecutor v Genesee Circuit Judge, 391 Mich 115; 215 NW2d 145 (1974).
On May 8, 1974, following a jury trial on the charge of murder, the defendant was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to serve 20 to 35 years in prison. Again appeal was taken to the Court of Appeals and on December 10, 1975 the second-degree murder conviction was affirmed in an unpublished per curiam opinion. Thereupon, *102claiming indigency, the defendant requested the appointment of counsel for a further appeal to this Court. His request was granted and counsel was appointed on August 13, 1976.
It was not until 12 months later, on August 19, 1977, that appointed appellate counsel got around to filing, in this Court, a delayed application for leave to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeals.
The general court rule governing the time within which an application for leave to appeal from a decision of the Court of Appeals may be filed is GCR 1963, 853.2(1) which in relevant part provides:
"Application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court shall be filed with the clerk of the Supreme Court within 20 days after mailing by clerk of the Court of Appeals of notice to counsel of entry of the order of the Court of Appeals or the denial of an application for rehearing timely filed.”
On the record before us, the last day for filing an application for leave to appeal was December 31, 1975.
For cases in which the plain mandate of the foregoing rule is not met, subsection (3) of subrule .2 of Rule 853 authorizes limited delayed appeals in the following language:
"Delayed application for leave to appeal may be filed upon a showing by affidavit of facts that the delay was not due tq appellant’s culpable negligence but no such application shall be ñled later than six months after the decision of the Court of Appeals. ”
Plainly, two requirements must be met before a delayed application for leave to appeal may even *103be filed in the Michigan Supreme Court, to say nothing of affording predicate for relief.
First, the application must be accompanied by an affidavit reciting facts that the delay was not due to the culpable negligence of the appellant and second, the application must be filed not later than six months after the decision of the Court of Appeals.
The appellant before the Court in the instant case has not complied with either of these conditions.
Ignoring the provision of subsection (3) of the rule which requires the filing of an affidavit of facts, the State Appellate Defender filed instead an affidavit containing no facts whatever, but merely the conclusionary assertion that the delay in filing the application was not due to the appellant’s culpable negligence.
Further ignoring the command of the rule that "no such application shall be filed later than six months after the decision of the Court of Appeals”, counsel for the appellant, nevertheless, filed the application for delayed appeal 12 months after the appointment of counsel by the trial court and 20 months after the decision of the Court of Appeals.1
In fairness to counsel from the State Appellate Defender’s Office, it should be observed here that she is fortified in her disregard of our court rule *104by the consistent record of this Court similarly disregarding the court rule by refusing to enforce it in innumerable cases in years past, as well as today.
This Court, recognizing that justice delayed is justice denied for the people of this state as well as for the defendants in criminal cases, and presumably subscribing to the notion that all litigation should come to an end someday, adopted GCR 1963, 853.2(3) in language which directs unmistakably and unambiguously that no delayed application for leave to appeal may be filed in this Court more than six months after the decision of the Court of Appeals.
Since each of our rules is to be construed not only in accordance with the plain meaning of the words used, but insofar as possible in harmony with related rules, it is reasonable to calculate the period of delay in this case as running from the date upon which the trial court appointed appellate counsel at our invitation. As indicated, that was done on August 13, 1976. Consequently, even by that generous construction of the rule, the last day upon which a delayed application for leave to appeal could have been filed properly in this Court was February 13, 1977 and not August 19, 1977 as was the case.
The wisdom of a rule which fixes some day as the time after which an appeal may not be taken, and after which we shall not review untimely appeals, is no better illustrated than in this case.
The killing in question for which the defendant attempted to plead guilty the first time around is now 7-1/2 years old. When the case was brought to trial in May of 1974, the key witness for the prosecution, Tom Harrington, had disappeared and his preliminary examination testimony was the *105best the prosecution had to use at trial. Now, four more years have passed. While it is unknown whether other witnesses have died, disappeared, or left the jurisdiction, it is clear that, even if available, they will be required to call upon eight-year-old memories of the events in question.
The wisdom and fairness of a third trial aside, it is clear that obedience to the command of our own rules mandates a denial of leave in this case. When we begin to demonstrate a willingness to vote obedience to the law as it governs our own authority to review a case brought here, we can begin to expect corresponding obedience from the State Appellate Defender and others upon whom our rules are meant to be binding.

 Our court rules did not explicitly accommodate our practice, at the time here in question under then effective Administrative Order 1975-9, 395 Mich xliii, of appointing counsel for indigent criminal defendants for the purpose of preparing and filing applications for leave to appeal to this Court. Appellant should not, it is clear, be "charged with” the entire 20 months that elapsed between the decision of the Court of Appeals and the filing of the application for leave to appeal. Appellant’s request for the appointment of counsel, filed with this Court on February 11, 1976, was not granted until July 14, 1976 and, as stated above, appointment was not made by the trial court until August 13, 1976. Here, 12 additional months passed before the application was filed.