People v. Chapa, Docket No. 62274
Decision Date | 29 October 1979 |
Docket Number | Docket No. 62274 |
Citation | 407 Mich. 309,284 N.W.2d 340 |
Parties | PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Arturo CHAPA, Defendant-Appellant. |
Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
Frank J. Kelley, Atty. Gen., Robert A. Derengoski, Sol. Gen., and George B. Mullison, Pros. Atty., Bay City, for the People.
State Appellate Defender by Janet Tooley, Detroit, for defendant.
When the record shows that a local policy has replaced the discretion of a sentencing judge, reversible error has been committed. This defendant must be resentenced.
Arturo Chapa was charged in Bay Circuit Court with delivery of and conspiracy to deliver heroin. He pled guilty to the heroin delivery charge in return for dismissal of the conspiracy charge. On April 17, 1977, the judge, in sentencing him to imprisonment for 8 to 20 years, said in part:
Chapa claimed on appeal that the sentence was "illegal" because it was based on a policy of mandatory prison terms for heroin dealers despite his personal qualifications for probation or leniency. The Court of Appeals affirmed.
There are few crimes for which the Legislature has adopted a policy requiring a minimum term of imprisonment. 1 For most crimes, the policy is for individualized sentencing:
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