Opinion
368507
01-11-2024
People of Michigan v. Daniel Gerald Ferguson
LC No. 2023-000058-FH
Allie Greenleaf Maldonado Presiding Judge Michael F. Gadola Michelle M. Rick Judges.
AMENDED ORDER
Allie Greenleaf Maldonado Presiding Judge.
The application for leave to appeal is DENIED for lack of merit in the grounds presented.
Rick, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part states:
I agree with my colleagues that defendant's application for leave to appeal should be denied on the issue of whether trial courts may award attorney fees at sentencing pursuant to MCL 769.1k. This is settled law. See People v Trapp (On Remand), 280 Mich.App. 598, 601-602; 760 N.W.2d 791 (2008), overruled in part on other grounds People v Jackson, 483 Mich. 271, 286 n 8; 769 N.W.2d 630 (2009). I depart from my colleagues on the imposition of attorney fees on indigent defendants who are represented by assigned counsel under the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission Act (MIDC Act), MCL 780.981 et. seq. Under the MIDC Act, trial courts now receive grant money from the state to provide attorneys to the poor. While the trial court in the instant case graciously and heavily discounted defendant's obligation when ordering the repayment of attorney fees, the record is void of any analysis of how it concluded an assessment was proper and how it reached the amount imposed. I read Section 11 of the MIDC Act as explicitly requiring this analysis. See MCL 780.991(3)(a) through (g). Notably, the bill became effective July 1, 2013. Thus, while our Supreme Court concluded in 2009 that no ability-to-pay analysis is specified or required by MCL 769.1k, see Jackson, supra, the Legislature subsequently expressly required this analysis for those indigent defendants whose attorneys are funded by the MIDC. On this limited basis, I dissent.