Opinion
348984
08-28-2023
People of Michigan v. Johnathan Thomas
LC No. 1994-000707-FC
Mark T. Boonstra Presiding Judge Jane E. Markey Douglas B. Shapiro Judges
ORDER
On the Court's own motion, the reconsideration on remand of the delayed application for leave to appeal is held in abeyance pending this Court's decision in People v Poole, Docket No. 352569.
Shapiro, J., would grant leave to appeal because under People v Parks, 510 Mich. 225, 268 (2002), sentencing an 18 year old to a mandatory sentence of life without parole "constitutes unconstitutionally cruel punishment under Const. 1963, art. 1, sec 16." "Substantive rules . . . set forth categorical constitutional guarantees that place certain criminal laws and punishments altogether beyond the State's power to impose. It follows that when a State enforces a proscription or penalty barred by the Constitution, the resulting conviction or sentence is, by definition, unlawful." Montgomery v Louisiana, 577 U.S. 190, 201; 136 S.Ct. 718; 193 L.Ed.2d 599 (2016). "A penalty imposed pursuant to an unconstitutional law is no less void because the prisoner's sentence became final before the law was held unconstitutional. There is no grandfather clause that permits States to enforce punishment that the Constitution forbids." Id. at 204.