People v. Taylor

Full title: PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ANDREW D. TAYLOR…

Court: Supreme Court of Michigan

Date published: Jan 31, 2000

461 Mich. 950 (Mich. 2000)

607 N.W.2d 711

Opinion

No. 114412.

January 31, 2000

Recorder's Ct: 96-007734

On order of the Court, the delayed application for leave to appeal from the March 17, 1999 decision of the Court of Appeals is considered, and it is DENIED, because we are not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this Court.

Taylor, J., (concurring).

In my view, the error at issue was harmless. The trial judge violated MCR 6.302(C)(4)(c) by failing to ask defendant if it was his own choice to plead guilty. However, in Guilty Plea Cases, 395 Mich. 96, 113 (1975), this Court stated that whether a departure from such rules requires reversal or a remand depends on the nature of the noncompliance. Here, the guilty plea was the result of a Cobbs agreement.¹ Thus, a plea bargain, including the sentence, was obviously presented to defendant and it is inherent in such a transaction that he must have been given a choice to accept or reject that deal. In this context, where it is clear that defendant chose to accept the arrangement, I am convinced that the failure to specifically ask him whether it was his own choice to plead guilty was harmless.

1 People v Cobbs, 443 Mich. 276 (1993).

Kelly, J., (dissenting).

I would remand this case to the trial court to give defendant an opportunity to withdraw his guilty plea. The trial court did not verify that the defendant made his plea voluntarily as required by MCR 6.302(C)(4)(c). The circumstances under which the trial court accepted the plea indicate that the defendant may not have made it voluntarily. Defendant had a low I.Q. and limited decision-making capacity. Furthermore, he communicated to the judge two days after the plea hearing that he sought to withdraw his plea.

Defendant was prejudiced because he was required to show at a later date that it was in the interest of justice to allow him to withdraw his plea. See MCR 6.310(B). Had the court given him the advice to which he was entitled, he might well not have pleaded guilty and been put to the added burden. Therefore, the trial court's failure to comply with MCR 6.302(C)(4)(c) constitutes error requiring reversal. The Court should not turn a deaf ear to defendant's reasonable request.

Court of Appeals No. 216880.