Claim that the trial court violated defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights when it denied his request to have a jury make the findings required by Miller & MCL 769.25(6); Miller v. Alabama; People v. Skinner

After the state conceded that Skinner was binding here, the court vacated the defendant’s sentence and remanded for further proceedings consistent with Skinner. He was convicted of first-degree murder and the trial court sentenced him to life without parole. He committed the offense when he was a juvenile. On appeal, defendant argued that the trial court violated his Sixth Amendment rights when it denied his request to have a jury make the findings required by Miller and MCL 769.25(6). In Skinner, the court recently addressed an identical argument and held that “[i]n order to enhance a juvenile’s default sentence to life without parole, absent a waiver, a jury must make findings on the Miller factors as codified at MCL 769.25(6) to determine whether the juvenile’s crime reflects ‘irreparable corruption’ beyond a reasonable doubt.” As to MCL 769.25, Skinner held that “portions of the statute were unconstitutional, but ‘apart from subsection (6)’s provision directing the trial court to consider the Miller factors, and from subsection (7)’s provision directing the court to articulate aggravating and mitigating circumstances on the record, MCL 769.25 remains operable in the event that the’ jury makes factual findings on the Miller factors beyond a reasonable doubt.”