Sentencing; Miller v. Alabama; People v. Skinner; Sixth Amendment right to a jury; Apprendi v. New Jersey; MCL 769.25 & 769.25a; People v. Carp

Based on Skinner, the court vacated the defendant’s sentence of life without parole for his first-degree murder conviction and remanded for further proceedings. This was the second appeal in this case. The court previously remanded the case to the trial court, which imposed the sentence at issue on resentencing. In his appellate brief, defendant argued that the trial court abused its discretion in failing to consider the mitigating factors discussed in Miller. “At oral argument, defense counsel raised the issue of defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to have a jury determine if a sentence of life without parole is appropriate under the circumstances of his case.” The court noted that “the law regarding sentencing juveniles to life without parole” had evolved rapidly since this case was remanded for resentencing pursuant to a Miller hearing. In Skinner, the defendant argued that judicial fact-finding “permitted by MCL 769.25 violated her Sixth Amendment right to a jury because it exposed her to a penalty greater than otherwise authorized by the jury’s verdict.” The court in Skinner agreed, concluding 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.”