Court Opinion

ID: 9861918
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 00:54:30.383204+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:29:47.977489
License: Public Domain

Adams, J.
(dissenting). I agree with Justice T. M. Kavanagh. Defendants were first charged with a crime that has no included offenses of second-degree murder or manslaughter. They were then charged with second-degree murder of which they could not have been guilty, being at the most accessories and the principal having pled guilty to first-degree murder in an armed robbery. Because a defendant and the people wish to bargain, may a judge accept a plea to a crime of which defendant cannot under the law have been guilty! The question was answered by Chief Justice Campbell in Edwards v. People (1878), 39 Mich 760, 762, when he wrote:
“It is contrary to public policy to have any one imprisoned who is not clearly guilty of the precise crime charged against him.”
If a defendant may plead to any offense — guilty or not, and if a judge can accept such a plea — guilty or not, the judge becomes the law. No matter how conscientious and concerned a judge may be — as the trial judge undoubtedly was in this case — it is a decision he is not allowed to make. The law provides (CL 1948, § 768.35 [Stat Ann 1954 Rev § 28.1058]):
*151“And whenever said judge shall have reason to doubt the truth of such plea of guilty, it shall he his duty to vacate the same, direct a plea of not guilty to be entered and order a trial of the issue thus formed.”
T. M. KavaNágh, J., concurred with Adams, J.