Court Opinion

ID: 9727764
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 13:49:47.845675+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:42.584967
License: Public Domain

M. J. Kelly, P.J.
(concurring). It seems to me that People v New, 427 Mich 482; 398 NW2d 358 (1986), raises a question whether defendant’s claim of entrapment was waived by his guilty plea.
The holding of People v New is that a defendant may appeal from an unconditional guilty plea only where the claim of appeal implicates the authority of the state to bring him to trial. Where the claim sought to be appealed involves only the capacity of the state to prove a defendant’s factual guilt it is waived by such a plea.
In People v Douglas, 122 Mich App 526; 332 NW2d 521 (1983),’ we held that entrapment is a jurisdictional defense not waived by a guilty plea:
Defendant correctly asserted that his claim of entrapment was not waived by his guilty plea, citing the Supreme Court’s interpretation of People v Alvin Johnson, 396 Mich 424; 240 NW2d 729 (1976), in People v White, 411 Mich 366, 387; 308 NW2d 128 (1981) .... [Douglas, supra, p 528.]
Since that time in numerous unpublished opinions this Court has reiterated the holding that a defendant does not waive the right to assert an entrapment defense despite pleading guilty. So far as I’m able to determine there are no published cases dealing with this issue since People v New. It seems to me ripe for argument that under the *147holding in People v New the defense of entrapment is subject to the same "misreading” cited at page 489 of the New opinion. Since it is my belief that the defense of entrapment has been properly held waived in the application of federal criminal law in the federal courts, there is sound reason for a similar holding in Michigan.
This matter has not been briefed or argued in this case and, since it would benefit neither party to do so on a motion for rehearing, we have ordered publication of this opinion to signal the bench and bar of my perspective that this issue is ripe for decision in view of the evolving nature of this area of the law following the Supreme Court’s decision in People v New, supra.