Michigan Supreme Court

The Michigan Supreme Court clarified that factual findings in entrapment hearings are reviewed for clear error while the ultimate legal determination of entrapment is reviewed de novo, held that the phrase “ready and willing” is not a separate element of the unlawful‑inducement prong, and vacated the Court of Appeals…

The Michigan Supreme Court overruled People v. Carpenter, holding that MCL 768.21a does not bar the admission of diminished‑capacity evidence to contest specific‑intent elements, vacated the trial court’s denial of such evidence, and remanded the case for further proceedings consistent with the new rule.

The Michigan Supreme Court held that the Attorney General had adequately pleaded a request for declaratory relief and that a live controversy existed, allowing the Court to address the applicability of the MCPA exemption.

The Michigan Supreme Court held that mandatory life without parole (LWOP) for felony-murder convictions entered before its 1980 decision in People v Aaron violates Const 1963, art 1, § 16's ban on cruel or unusual punishment where the jury was never instructed on malice as Aaron defines it, unless the prosecution…

The Court held that an expert's diagnosis of a child with "medical torture" was inadmissible because it did not help the jury evaluate a fact in issue, lacked a reliable foundation as to psychological maltreatment, and risked substituting a medical label for the jury's determination of criminal responsibility.

The Michigan Supreme Court held that police violated defendant's Miranda-based Fifth Amendment right to counsel by giving confusing information implying that appointed counsel was unavailable because defendant lacked money and by continuing the interrogation after defendant invoked counsel.

The Court held that Abdulla was an owner of the tractor because he had the use and complete control of it for more than 30 days, notwithstanding that the tractor was titled to his wholly owned limited-liability company.

The Michigan Supreme Court held that Soriano did not knowingly and intelligently waive his Miranda rights because the totality of the circumstances, including severe LSD intoxication, confusion, youth, exhaustion, and lack of law-enforcement experience, showed that he lacked the capacity to understand the rights he…

The Michigan Supreme Court held that trial counsel's concession of Richard Klungle's guilt on a trespassing charge—made for the first time in closing argument and without ever consulting Klungle, who had consistently asserted his innocence—violated Klungle's Sixth Amendment right of autonomy to maintain innocence as…

In a unanimous opinion by Justice Welch, the Michigan Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and held that a trial court may not prohibit MRTMA-compliant marijuana use as a probation condition solely because such use violates federal law.

The Michigan Supreme Court held that a motion to amend a witness list is governed by the good-cause standard in MCR 2.401(I)(2), not by the full set of factors used for discovery sanctions.

The Court held that sufficient evidence supported defendant's first-degree premeditated murder conviction because a rational juror could infer premeditation and deliberation from the sequence and circumstances of the assault, including defendant's escalating conduct, acquisition and use of a knife, repositioning of…

The court held that failure to establish plain error does not, without independent analysis, defeat an ineffective-assistance claim based on the same underlying mistake. Plain-error review and ineffective-assistance review address different alleged errors, elements, and potentially different records.

The court held that the parties’ Equipment Manufacturing and Installation Agreement and Nondisclosure Agreement were supported by consideration because the agreements contemplated termination on 14 days’ notice and the plaintiff exercised that contractual right.

The Michigan Supreme Court held that the Apprendi rule as extended by Alleyne applies to Michigan's sentencing guidelines, rendering them unconstitutional to the extent they require judicial fact-finding—beyond facts admitted by the defendant or found by the jury beyond a reasonable doubt—to score offense variables…

The Michigan Supreme Court adopted a totality-of-the-circumstances standard for determining when a trial judge's conduct creates an appearance of advocacy or partiality that pierces the veil of judicial impartiality.

The court held that trial counsel provided constitutionally ineffective assistance by failing to investigate or attempt to secure a suitable expert to support the defense theory that the child’s death resulted from an accidental fall and to challenge the prosecution’s medical experts.

The Michigan Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed in part the Court of Appeals' decision, holding that a new trial was warranted but that the prosecution's pretrial plea offer need not be reinstated.

The Michigan Supreme Court held that Michigan's 'one-parent doctrine' — under which a court may enter dispositional orders affecting a parent's rights based solely on the other parent's adjudicated unfitness — violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it strips unadjudicated parents of their…

The court held that Brighton's ordinance, which presumes demolition reasonable when repair costs exceed 100 percent of a structure's pre-deterioration value, is not facially unconstitutional under either substantive or procedural due process.

The court held that Ahrens's contractual indemnity obligations covered Miller-Davis's costs of correcting Ahrens's nonconforming roof work. Sherman Lake YMCA's written corrective-work agreement constituted a claim or demand triggering the indemnity provisions, and Ahrens's refusal to perform the corrective work caused…

The Michigan Supreme Court rejected a diligence requirement added by the Court of Appeals to the Brady framework, overruled that precedent, and reaffirmed the traditional three-factor test requiring suppressed, favorable, and material evidence.

The Michigan Supreme Court held that a four-year-old witness who was unable, because of youth-related emotional distress, to testify at trial suffered from a then-existing mental infirmity and was unavailable under MRE 804(a)(4).

The Michigan Supreme Court held that 50 points under offense variable 7 (OV 7), MCL 777.37(1)(a), are properly assessed for conduct intended to make a victim's fear or anxiety greater by a considerable amount, even if the conduct is not as egregious as sadism, torture, or excessive brutality.

The Michigan Supreme Court held that collateral estoppel could not be applied—based on a prior civil judgment that defense counsel's performance fell within the attorney judgment rule—to preclude review of defendant's ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim, because defendant lacked a full and fair opportunity to…

The Michigan Supreme Court held that the icy sidewalk at the sole entrance to a fitness club, though concededly open and obvious, was not 'effectually unavoidable' merely because the injured plaintiff held a paid membership giving her a contractual right to enter; effective unavoidability requires that a person be…

The Michigan Supreme Court held that expenses for replacement services are not recoverable in a third-party tort action under MCL 500.3135(3)(c) because that provision lists allowable expenses, work loss, and survivor's loss but does not list replacement services.

The Michigan Supreme Court held that a criminal defendant's Sixth Amendment right to a public trial, including public voir dire, is governed by the People v Carines forfeiture rule: silence at the time of closure forfeits rather than waives the right, and the Court of Appeals erred in treating nonassertion as…

The Court held that an insurer may use traditional legal and equitable remedies to avoid liability under an insurance policy obtained through fraud, even when the fraud was easily ascertainable and the claimant is an injured third party.

In this consolidated decision, the Michigan Supreme Court held that MCL 768.27a, which makes evidence of a defendant's other listed offenses against minors admissible 'for its bearing on any matter to which it is relevant,' irreconcilably conflicts with MRE 404(b)'s bar on propensity evidence, but that the statute…

The Michigan Supreme Court held that trial counsel's failure to pursue admission of cell phone records contradicting the complainant's testimony was constitutionally ineffective assistance that prejudiced defendant, entitling him to a new trial on two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

The Michigan Supreme Court held that MCL 750.145a contains two alternative prongs — accosting, enticing, or soliciting a child (or one believed to be a child) with specific intent to induce or force a proscribed act, and encouraging a child to engage in such an act with general criminal intent — and that although the…

The court held that a party's contractual obligations do not extinguish or limit independently existing common-law or statutory duties owed to noncontracting third parties. The proper inquiry is whether the defendant owed the plaintiff any legal duty apart from the contract, not whether the alleged hazard or conduct…

The court held that the statutory serious-impairment threshold requires an objectively manifested impairment of an important body function that affects some of the plaintiff’s capacity to live in his or her normal manner of living.

The court held that evidence of four prior fires involving property owned or controlled by defendant was admissible to rebut his claim that the charged fire was accidental. The evidence was relevant under the doctrine of chances because the unusual frequency of fires objectively suggested that at least one resulted…

The Court held that common-law self-defense may justify a defendant's otherwise unlawful possession of a firearm in violation of the felon-in-possession statute when supported by sufficient evidence.

The court held that the child's statements were inadmissible under MRE 803A because an adult initiated the subject of sexual abuse and elicited the statements through specific questioning, making them nonspontaneous.

The Michigan Supreme Court held that evidence of the victim's extreme intoxication was relevant to whether the victim's conduct was a superseding cause of the accident and death, and that excluding the evidence was prejudicial enough to require reversal.

The Michigan Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals' affirmance of the termination of Richard Mason's parental rights to his two young sons, holding that the Department of Human Services and the trial court failed to facilitate the incarcerated father's telephonic participation in the child protective proceedings…

The Michigan Supreme Court held that offense variables are generally scored using conduct relating only to the sentencing offense, unless the particular variable expressly permits consideration of conduct beyond it.