Court Opinion

ID: 9740241
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:30:41.887094+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:17.092544
License: Public Domain

T. M. Burns, J.
(concurring in part; dissenting in part). I agree that this case ought to be remanded for an evidentiary hearing on the voluntariness of defendant’s plea. However, I disagree with the majority’s interpretation of GCR 1963, 785.7(3)(a). The majority would support defendant’s guilty plea conviction of assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct involving penetration *372even though there is no factual support for this conviction in the guilty plea transcript.
In People v Haack, 396 Mich 367, 378; 240 NW2d 704 (1976), the Supreme Court, quoting People v Coates, 32 Mich App 52, 70; 188 NW2d 265 (1971) (Levin, J., dissenting), stated:
"A guilty plea 'may be accepted even though the defendant is unsure of his guilt and even where he denies his guilt if after careful inquiry the judge satisfies himself that there is a substantial factual basis for the plea and that the plea represents a well-considered and well-advised choice by the defendant’.” (Emphasis in original.)
In the instant case there is no "substantial factual basis for the plea”. The construction given this Court Rule by the majority does an injustice to the spirit of this Court Rule as evidenced by the Supreme Court’s opinion in the Guilty Plea Cases, 395 Mich 96, 129; 235 NW2d 132 (1975), cert den sub nom Saunders v Michigan, 429 US 1108; 97 S Ct 1142; 51 L Ed 2d 561 (1977), where the Supreme Court reviewed the factual basis of the various pleas by the defendants before it and affirmed many of them on the basis that "it appears on the record that the defendant pled guilty to an offense of which he might have been convicted at trial”.
On the facts presented at the guilty plea proceeding below, defendant could not have been convicted by a jury of assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct involving penetration. It is irrelevant that he could have been convicted of any other charge because it was this crime that he pleaded guilty to. Therefore, I would hold that on remand the prosecutor be required to establish the missing elements of this crime. Id., 129. If he is able to do so, then defendant’s conviction should be affirmed. However, if the prosecutor is unable to do so, defendant’s guilty plea should be vacated.