Justia Michigan Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

In 2005, Defendant Kent Lee and his wife babysat their neighbor's two boys. Defendant prepared the children for bedtime by bathing them. The younger boy, a three-year-old, was uncooperative when Defendant tried to diaper and dress him. According to Defendant, he used his finger to "flick" the child's penis in an effort to get his attention. When the child did not respond, Defendant flicked him again. The child cried after the second flick. Defendant was subsequently charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct and second-degree child abuse. At his sentencing hearing, the prosecution requested that Defendant be required to register as a sex offender under the Sex Offender’s Registration Act's (SORA) catch-all provision. The judge did not require the registration, finding that the crime was not a "sex act." Approximately twenty months after the sentencing, the prosecution moved for an entry of order requiring Defendant to register under SORA. Defendant objected, but the trial court reversed itself, and required the registration. Defendant appealed. The appellate court affirmed. Upon review, the Supreme Court found that the trial court erred when it required Defendant to register 20 months after he was sentenced. The Court reversed the appellate court and vacated the trial court's decisions. View "Michigan v. Lee" on Justia Law

A jury convicted Defendant-Appellant Drew Peltola on drug possession charges. The trial court considered Defendant's prior criminal history ("prior record variables" or PRVs), and calculated his sentence to be in the five to twenty-three month range, with a statutory minimum at twenty years. Because defendant had a prior conviction for a controlled substance, the trial court applied a sentence enhancement. As a result, the court doubled both the minimum and maximum sentences for each conviction and sentenced defendant within the enhanced guidelines range to concurrent terms of 4 to 40 years' imprisonment. Defendant unsuccessfully appealed the trial court's scoring of his PRVs. The question before the Supreme Court involved whether the trial court miscalculated Defendant's sentence based on its scoring of the PRVs. Upon consideration of the trial record and the applicable legal authority, the Supreme Court found that the trial court's enhancing of Defendant's sentence range was authorized by Michigan law. Accordingly, the Court affirmed the trial court's decision and Defendant's sentence. View "Michigan v. Peltola" on Justia Law