Court Opinion

ID: 9658674
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 21:07:54.010523+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:57.754789
License: Public Domain

Fitzgerald, J.
(concurring). I concur in the result reached by the majority. However, I write separately to address defendant’s argument that MCL 712A.2d(l) is unconstitutional because it does not specify a minimum age under which a juvenile may not be tried as an adult.
MCL 712A.2d(l) provides:
In a petition or amended petition alleging that a juvenile is within the court’s jurisdiction under section 2(a)(1) of this chapter for a specified juvenile violation, the prosecuting attorney may designate the case as a case in which the juvenile is to be tried in the same manner as an adult.
An amended petition making a designation under this subsection shall be filed only by leave of the court.
“Specified juvenile violation” is defined in MCL 712A.2d(9).1
*285Although I agree with the majority that the statute is not unconstitutional, I am disturbed by the fact that the statute does not specify any minimum age under which the prosecutor does not have unrestricted discretion to try a juvenile as an adult. A juvenile tried and convicted as an adult under subsection 2d(l) may be subject to “any sentence . .. that could be imposed upon an adult convicted of the offense for which the juvenile was convicted.” MCL 712A.18(n).2 Thus, a juvenile of any age, no matter how young, who is tried and convicted as an adult of a specified juvenile violation can face up to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.3 While it may be unlikely for a prosecutor to try a very young child as an adult, under subsection 2d(l) a prosecutor would nonetheless have unrestricted discretion to try a child of any age as an adult. I urge the Legislature to revisit subsection 2d(l) and impose a minimum age under which a juvenile cannot be tried as an adult for a specified juvenile violation.4

 If the offense committed by the juvenile is “other than a specified juvenile violation, ” the prosecutor may request that the court designate the case as a case in which the juvenile is to be tried in the same manner as an adult. MCL 712A.19d(2). The court may designate the case following a hearing if it determines that the best interests of the juvenile and the *285public would be served by the juvenile being tried in the same manner as an adult. Id.

 In the present case, however, defendant was not sentenced as an adult.

 Indeed, under the plain language of the statute, a child as young as three, or four, or five years of age could be tried, convicted, and sentenced as an adult.

 Although this case does not involve an “offense other than a specified juvenile violation,” I would also urge the Legislature to impose a minimum age for purposes of subsection 2d(2).