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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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