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People V. Smith Case Summary

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The case of People v. Smith in the Supreme Court of Michigan was a landmark case for the state. With the court determining its holdings on the lower trial courts sentencing guidelines and practices concerning the use of juvenile criminal records in adult criminal cases (People v. Smith, 437 Mich. 293 (1991)). The State of Michigan did file an appeal to the Supreme Court of Michigan concerning the decision by the Lower Court of Appeals in the case of Ricky Smith. The lower court did uphold the conviction of Smith, but did overturn his sentence and remanded him to a new sentencing hearing. The court viewed the use of his juvenile criminal record to violate Michigan state law. The court showed that the utilization of an offender’s juvenile criminal record allowed for the stigma of criminal behavior to follow the person into adulthood. The legal issues before the Supreme Court of Michigan were; what are the terms that a sentencing judge can rightfully use the juvenile records of a convicted offender during the sentencing process (People v. Smith, 437 Mich. 293 …show more content…

Smith, 437 Mich. 293 (1991)). Upon, his sentencing the Judge did allow for his juvenile criminal record to be a part of his sentencing report and a factor in the sentencing guidelines for his sentence. Smith’s juvenile criminal records did show that he had six felony offenses as a minor, these felony offenses did heighten the penalty and give Smith above the number of felonies required for an offender to be determined as a habitual offender. As stated above, Smith appealed the conviction and the sentence, where the appeals court did uphold the conviction but did reject the sentencing and order a new sentence hearing for Smith. The State of Michigan then filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Michigan on the decision of the lower

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Ricky Franklin Smith was convicted based on his guilty plea of breaking and entering and his fourth offense of being a habitual offender. During his sentencing hearing, the court referred to his juvenile court records and enhanced his final sentence. Smith appealed his sentencing in the Court of Appeals arguing that he was entitled to resentencing because his juvenile criminal records had been automatically expunged pursuant to former MCR 5.913 (People v. Smith, 2017). The Court of Appeals reviewed People v. Price which had ruled that a juvenile record automatically expunged pursuant to MCR 5.913 could not be used during the presentence investigation. They also reviewed People v. Jones where the panel concluded that an expunged juvenile

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Case Name: U.S. ex rel. Cannon v. Smith Case Citation: 388 F. Supp. 1201 (W.D.N.Y. 1975) Procedural History: State prisoner filed pro se application for writ of habeas corpus to secure his release from imprisonment for rape. The U.S. District Court for the Western Division of New York denied his request and he appealed. The U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit remanded.

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The 1990 case of Employment Division v. Smith is about Smith and Black who were both members of a Native American Church and counselors at a private drug rehabilitation clinic. They were both fired because they had taken peyote as a part of their religious ceremonies, at that time the possession of peyote was a crime under the State law. The counselors filed for unemployment in the state, but were denied by the Employment Division because the reason for their unemployment was work-related misconduct. Smith and Black argued, stating that under the First Amendment the government is forbidden from prohibiting the "free exercise" of religion in this case the free exercise of peyote. Court of Appeals reversed the ruling, saying that denying them unemployment benefits for their religious use of peyote violated their right to as it was a part of their religion.

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a. Writing the Discussion Section If you have thoroughly outlined your discussion section, writing it should be relatively easy. Because you have already spent time on the organization of your outline, you can focus on making the memo easy to read by adding transitional phrases and clear language. The Discussion section for the hypothetical memo follows. Note how it parallels the outline. The author transcribed the outline into prose, added transitional phrases, and changed the citations to short form where necessary.

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A comparison study of two murders in the state of Ms which are Jones v. State of Mississippi (2009) and Parker v. State of Mississippi (2011) and both of these cases have a lot in common. Brett Jones and Lester Parker are currently in jail for a heinous crime. Not only were they 15 years old juveniles doing the time but they both their grandfathers several times for different reasons and because of that they were charged with first and second degree murder and was sentenced to life without parole. Brett Jones Jr. v. State of Mississippi (2009) Brett Jones stabbed his 68 year old grandfather to death and was sentenced to life without parole but because he was a juvenile at the time he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole because his 8th amendment was violated.

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State of Georgia V. Marcus Dwayne Dixon (2003) Marcus Dixon was a highly recruited high school football player. His life suddenly took a tragic turn when he was falsely convicted of raping a 15 year old girl. The elements around his false conviction could have been avoided with some reform to the criminal justice courts system. Dixon initially had many charges against him but were narrowed down to statutory rape and aggravated child molestation. There was much racial disparity surrounding the jury on Dixon’s case, in that the county that Dixon committed his “crime” was a predominantly white population.

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Therefore, Ricky Smith was sentenced to serve his time concurrently with the other sentence that he had encountered. However, in the case of People v. McFarlin, 389 Mich 557; 208 NW2d 504 (1973), it was suggested that a judge has the right to consider an adult offender's juvenile record, whereas the Probate Code suggests the probate *299 court cannot use a juvenile record as proper evidence against a child in any case in any civil, criminal, or other cause except under a Juveniles and Juvenile Division Chapter of the Probate Code(People v. Smith, 2017). Shortly after in 1978, the Court adopted JCR 13, in which provided automatic expungement juvenile offender records, providing within seven years afterward there is not a felony conviction(People v. Smith, 2017). The Panel of a different court has encountered this situation before, for instance in the People v. Price, 172 Mich App 396, 399-400; 431 NW2d 524 (1988) found that an automat expunge pursuant to MCR 5.913 will not use a juvenile record in court sentencing whereas, in the case of People v. Jones, 173 Mich App 341; 433 NW2d 829 (1988) suggests that a expunged juvenile record could be a factor in sentencing and included in the

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In the Supreme Court of Michigan, in the case of the People v. Smith (Ricky Franklin Smith), Smith was charged with breaking and entering a building with intent to commit theft. (Wesoloski, 2011) Smith agreed that he had broken a window to gain entrance into the Pontiac’s warehouse, and removed property without permission. (Wesoloski, 2011) At the time of this incident Smith was considered an adult and sentenced to three and one-half to ten years for breaking and entering; however, the sentence was vacated when Smith was convicted to serve six to thirty years as a habitual offender, for his fourth offense.

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The defendant was considered a habitual offender; fourth offense. He appealed his rights and was awarded a resentence; Docket No. 87874 People v. Smith, 470 NW2d 70, Michigan Supreme Court (1991). Smith case was referenced to People v. Price

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One of aspect in juvenile cases is the maturity of the criminal, and whether or not they had the brain capacity to determine what they had done. This interpretation of youth capacity is not one of the key aspects because it is solely on the judge’s interpretation of adolescence because, “ states may allow the juvenile court judge or the prosecutor to make a decision to waive or transfer a case to the adult court” (Campaign for Youth Justice). This phycological judgment by the judge is very opinionated, which does not make it as strong. One key example of the immaturity was the Affluenza case with Ethan Couch, who had killed four people, injuring two, was given a lighter trial as he was, “suffering from "affluenza" has been ordered by a judge to attend an undisclosed rehabilitation facility” (The Guardian). Even though these court cases are allowed to be taken from juvenile to adult court by the judge it is not generally the case, for there are much more key factors that are put into play such as whether the crime was

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It is shocking to know that before 1967 youths in the United States did not have the same rights as adults in court. Before the landmark case In Re Gault individuals underage were not promised the freedoms under the fourteenth amendment. The court system did not take juvenile delinquent cases as seriously. It was almost as if they brushed the delinquents under the rug and put them into a detention center the first chance they got. The Supreme Court came to the conclusion that in the case of In Re Gault the requirements for due process were not met.

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The federal government’s “War on Crime” by the Johnson administration in the 60s made way for tougher law enforcement and surveillance (Hinton, 2015). However, with this came the separation of children and adults in the criminal justice system; then the separation of juvenile delinquents from status offenders. As mentioned, status offenders are different from juvenile delinquents because they had broken rules which apply to only children. Meanwhile, juvenile delinquents are youths under the age of 18, who committed offenses that would be punishable to adults as well. By the late 1960s, there became a growing concern that juveniles involved in the court-based status-offense system, were not getting their best interests met (Shubik & Kendall, 2007).

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The juvenile justice system has made numerous of ethical issues when managing juvenile offenders. The issue with the juvenile justice system is the laws and rules that govern it. It has led to years of controversial debate over the ethical dilemmas of the juvenile corrections system, and how they work with youth offenders. The number of minors entering the juvenile justice system is increasing every month. The reasons why the juvenile justice system faces ethical dilemmas is important and needs to be addressed: (1) a vast proportion of juveniles are being tried and prosecuted as adults; (2) the psychological maturation of the juvenile to fully comprehend the justice system; and (3) the factors that contribute to minorities being adjudicated in the juvenile justice system are more likely than White offenders.

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Annotated bibliography Childress, S. (2016, June 2). More States Consider Raising the Age for Juvenile Crime. Retrieved from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/more-states-consider-raising-the-age-for-juvenile-crime/ More states are considering to raising the age for juvenile crimes before being tried as adult because young offender's mental capacity. The idea is to cut the cost of incarcerate young offender in adult prison and ensure offenders to receive proper education and specialized care to change their behavior. Putting children in adult prison does not deter crime.

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(1988). Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice and Law (3rd ed.). United States of America: West Publishing Company. Wright, W. &.

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