People v. Ristich
People v. Ristich
Opinion of the Court
Defendant pled guilty in Bay Circuit Court to violation of probation and unlawfully driving away an automobile, MCL 750.413; MSA 28.645. On April 7, 1986, he was sentenced to forty to sixty months imprisonment for each offense, with the sentences to run concurrently. Defendant appeals as of right from his sentences, requesting
In People v Watroba, 89 Mich App 718, 723; 282 NW2d 196 (1979), this Court stated the threshold prerequisites which must be met by a defendant seeking a Tucker hearing, namely, prima facie proof (1) that his prior conviction was constitutionally infirm, and (2) that such conviction was considered by the court in imposing sentence. Having made the threshold showing, however, defendant is not automatically entitled to a Tucker hearing. A Tucker hearing is mandated only where it appears from the totality of the circumstances that defendant’s sentence might have differed had the sentencing judge known of the infirmity of the prior conviction.
Under the rule of Tucker and Moore, a criminal conviction obtained in violation of a defendant’s right to counsel cannot be used to enhance a sentence. Other panels of this Court have noted that there is no such thing as a "juvenile conviction.” People v Covington, 144 Mich App 652; 376 NW2d 178 (1985), remanded 425 Mich 853 (1986), lv den 426 Mich 866 (1986), citing Kent v United States, 383 US 541, 556; 86 S Ct 1045; 16 L Ed 2d 84 (1966); People v Daniels, 149 Mich App 602; 386 NW2d 609 (1986). Accordingly, these other panels have concluded that the rule of Tucker and Moore is not applicable to constitutionally infirm juvenile
In our view, the continued viability of this Court’s opinions in Covington and Daniels are suspect in view of the Supreme Court’s remand in Covington, albeit an unexplained remand. Beyond that, given the continued viability of Tucker and Moore as our premise, we disagree with the rule as stated by the Covington and Daniels panels. As to the argument that delinquency adjudications are not "criminal convictions,” the United States Supreme Court in In re Gault, 387 US 1, 49-50; 87 S Ct 1428; 18 L Ed 2d 527 (1967), stated:
Against the application to juveniles of the right to silence, it is argued that juvenile proceedings are "civil” and not "criminal,” and therefore the privilege should not apply .... However, it is also clear that the availability of the privilege does not turn upon the type of proceeding in which its protection is invoked, but upon the nature of the statement or admission and the exposure which it invites. . . .
It would be entirely unrealistic to carve out of the Fifth Amendment all statements by juveniles on the ground that these cannot lead to "criminal” involvement. In the first place, juvenile proceed*758 ings to determine "delinquency,” which may lead to commitment to a state institution, must be regarded as "criminal” for purposes of the privilege against self-incrimination. To hold otherwise would be to disregard substance because of the feeble enticement of the "civil” label-of-convenience which has been attached to juvenile proceedings.
The Court affirmed this same line of reasoning in a delinquency case involving double jeopardy. Speaking for the Court in Breed v Jones, 421 US 519, 529; 95 S Ct 1779; 44 L Ed 2d 346 (1975), Chief Justice Burger said:
We believe it is simply too late in the day to conclude, as did the District Court in this case, that a juvenile is not put in jeopardy at a proceeding whose object is to determine whether he has committed acts that violate a criminal law and whose potential consequences include both the stigma inherent in such a determination and the deprivation of liberty for many years. For it is clear under our cases that determining the relevance of constitutional policies, like determining the applicability of constitutional rights, in juvenile proceedings, requires that courts eschew "the 'civil’ label-of-convenience which has been attached to juvenile proceedings.”
We cannot agree with the underpinnings of the panels’ decisions in Covington and Daniels, resting as they do on the " 'civil’ label-of-convenience.” We conclude, contrary to those decisions, that a constitutionally infirm juvenile delinquency adjudication obtained in violation of the juvenile’s right to counsel cannot be used to enhance a criminal sentence. See also Batzer, Direct Appeals from Michigan Juvenile Court Delinquency Adjudications and Dispositions: A Note on the Non-Cases, 24 Wayne L Rev 1239 (1978).
Our review of the record satisfies us that, had the sentencing court been aware that defendant was without counsel in a 1982 juvenile delinquency adjudication and had it further been aware that the adjudication without the benefit of counsel could not be used to enhance defendant’s sentences, the sentences would not have been different.
The term "deliquent” or "delinquency” is not found in the juvenile code, MCL 712A.1 et seq.; MSA 27.3178(598.1) et seq. Rather, the code speaks of the juvenile court’s having "jurisdiction” over a child who is found to have committed certain acts, including those acts that would be crimes if committed by an adult. An adjudication that a child is within the court’s jurisdiction by reason of having committed these acts is commonly called an adjudication of delinquency.
We do not wish to imply that all delinquency adjudications obtained without the benefit of counsel are constitutionally infirm. There could have been, for example, a proper waiver of the right to counsel.
Concurring Opinion
(concurring). I concur in the majority’s holding that defendant is not entitled to resentencing. However, I am not convinced that our Supreme Court’s treatment of People v Covington, 144 Mich App 652; 376 NW2d 178 (1985), is an indication that Covington should no longer be followed.
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