Opinion
367562
12-13-2023
People of Michigan v. Douglas Cornell Jackson
LC No. 09-003770-01-FC
Kirsten Frank Kelly Presiding Judge Thomas C. Cameron Kristina Robinson Garrett Judges
ORDER
The motion to waive fees is GRANTED for this case only.
The motion to exceed the page limitation is GRANTED.
Pursuant to MCR 7.205(E)(2), in lieu of granting the application, the trial court's June 5, 2023 order is VACATED in its entirety, and the matter REMANDED for further proceedings consistent with this order. On September 10, 2019, the Supreme Court remanded this case with directions that the trial court determine whether a November 21, 2016 order purporting to deny defendant's successive motion for relief from judgment was in error because the motion was not actually a successive motion. In re Jackon, 504 Mich. 955 (2019). On remand, the trial court concluded, in an order entered October 14, 2020, that the motion was, in fact, defendant's first motion for relief from judgment. The court then appointed counsel, and allowed supplemental briefing, which appears to have been completed in April 2023, when the prosecutor filed an answer. Yet in the June 5, 2023 order challenged on appeal, the circuit court deemed this defendant's third motion for relief from judgment and applied MCR 6.502(G) to the motion after failing to recognize the procedural history of this case, including the Supreme Court's September 10, 2019 order and the circuit court's own October 14, 2020 order. In light of the procedural history of this case, the motion should have been treated as defendant's first motion for relief from judgment and adjudicated under MCR 6.508(D), not MCR 6.502(G). In re Jackson, 504 Mich. at 623 (explaining that, in the event the court found that the motion was defendant's first, it "shall decide the motion under the standard set forth in MCR 6.508(D)". We thus remand for further proceedings consistent with this order.
This order is to have immediate effect. MCR 7.215(F)(2). We do not retain jurisdiction.