Court Opinion

ID: 9671003
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:29:22.007247+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:07.657524
License: Public Domain

D. C. Riley, J.
(concurring). With respect to defendant’s claim that the trial court erred in accepting her plea of guilty to a "nonexistent offense”, I concur in the result reached by the majority but write separately in an effort to clarify the confusion surrounding People v Banks, 51 Mich App 685; 216 NW2d 461 (1974), and its progeny.
The cases which have ruled that attempted assault is a nonexistent offense are based upon the view that an assault is, by definition, an attempted battery. These cases reason that there can be no attempt to attempt. This reasoning ignores the fact that an assault can also be a separate substantive crime involving acts that go beyond a mere attempt. This point was brought sharply into focus in the following annotation:
"Whether or not there can be a distinct offense of an attempt to commit an assault depends, from the logical standpoint, on what an assault is regarded as being. If an assault is an 'attempt’ to do something, the contention can be made that there can be no 'attempt to attempt’, but if an assault is regarded as simply putting a person in fear of his life or of personal injury, per*349haps there can, from the philosophical standpoint, be an attempt at an assault.” Anno: Attempt to commit assault as criminal offense, 79 ALR2d 597, 598.
A review of the facts of this case reveals that the defendant’s actions, of waving a closed pocketknife at a passenger in a passing car in an attempt to keep that passenger away, fall within the latter category. Therefore, the line of cases holding that attempted assault is a nonexistent offense are not applicable and I would affirm defendant’s conviction.
Having stated that there was no error in charging defendant with attempted felonious assault, I need not address the issue of whether a defendant who pleads guilty to a "nonexistent” offense can be heard to attack the propriety of his conviction.
Finally, as the record is not clear to me as to whether the "updated” presentence report contained all of the information required by MCL 771.14; MSA 28.1144, on remand as ordered by the majority I would instruct the trial court to resentence after consideration of a complete and updated presentence report.