People v. Lemons
| Decision Date | 06 May 1997 |
| Docket Number | 103266,Docket Nos. 103265,No. 13,13 |
| Parties | PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Mary Cadry LEMONS and Llewellyn Lemons, Defendants-Appellees. Calendar |
| Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
Frank J. Kelley, Attorney General, Thomas L. Casey, Solicitor General, John D. O'Hair, Prosecuting Attorney, Timothy A. Baughman, Chief, Research, Training and Appeals, and Janice M. Joyce Bartee, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, Detroit, for People.
State Appellate Defender by Gail Rodwan, and Maria Mannarino, Detroit, for Defendants-Appellees.
We granted leave to appeal in People v. Mary Lemons to decide whether defendant Mary Cadry Lemons was entitled to a jury instruction on duress where her defense was that the charged offenses never occurred, 1 and whether she was entitled to an instruction on criminal sexual conduct in the second degree. We granted leave in People v. Llewellyn Lemons to decide whether defendant Llewellyn Lemons' sentence of sixty to ninety years was lawful where defendant was forty-five years old at sentencing.
We reverse the decisions of the Court of Appeals in both cases. We reinstate Ms. Lemons' convictions and Mr. Lemons' sentences.
The defendants each were convicted of three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct 2 against their children. 3 They each were charged with four counts, but, just before trial, the prosecutor dismissed counts VII and VIII. 4 Ms. Lemons was convicted of three counts of receiving cunnilingus, one count involving her son (Mr. Lemons' stepson), and the other two involving her stepdaughter (Mr. Lemons' younger daughter). Mr. Lemons was convicted of one count of fellatio with each victim and, on an aiding and abetting theory, of one count of cunnilingus performed by his daughter on his wife. The aggravating factor making the crime CSC I was that both children were under the age of thirteen at the time of the events.
A
The testimony in this case came from the victims, as well as Mr. Lemons' older daughter. Mr. Lemons' younger daughter, who was eighteen at the time of trial, testified that the sexual abuse began in 1980 when she was five or six, before Ms. Lemons and her son moved in with Mr. Lemons and his daughters. 5 The witness testified that her father showed her a picture of a woman "performing oral sex on a man" in a magazine and convinced her to perform the act in the picture by telling her he was "low on [his magic] power" and would die if she did not. 6 Mr. Lemons ordered her to continue, pushing her "head down on him," even after she vomited. 7 The older sister, who was ten at the time of the incident, testified that her father had called her into the bedroom first and had shown her a picture of people having oral sex, which he said he needed for energy. When she refused, her father told her to go back to the living room and to send in her younger sister, which she did.
The evidence indicated that there were multiple acts of physical and sexual abuse of Mr. Lemons' younger daughter over a period of years from 1980 to 1988 when, at age thirteen, she ran away. She testified, without objection, that she performed "oral sex" on both defendants and that she observed Ms. Lemons' son performing "oral sex" on his mother and on Mr. Lemons. 8 She further testified about the cunnilingus, that Mr. Lemons ordered her to "do it to Mary," and that she put her face "down there [on Mary's] vagina." She also said it happened "[n]ot very many" other times. She testified with regard to Ms. Lemons' involvement:
Q. ... Do you think that [your step mother] did it because she wanted to, or was she forced?
A. When all this started it was all new to her. She never done anything like ... that before. And then at the beginning he forced her, and it wasn't me. I wasn't the first one. [My stepbrother] was, for her.
Q. All right. To perform oral sex on Mary?
* * * * * *
Q. Okay. Go ahead. Then what?
A. Then, you know, I mean the first time, all she said was "Lue." She didn't, she didn't object, she didn't try to stop it. And she slapped me. She was like provoking the situation. She was not trying to help me at all. She wasn't trying to stop it. She was making me do it. [Emphasis added.]
The only other incident involving Mr. Lemons' older daughter occurred some time after Ms. Lemons moved in. Ms. Lemons was sitting naked in the living room and Mr. Lemons attempted to coax his older daughter to "touch it." She refused and was never involved in subsequent acts of abuse. She ran away when she was sixteen because Mr. Lemons was beating her and the other children, making her fight Ms. Lemons with sticks, and ordering Ms. Lemons to beat her. There was evidence that Mr. Lemons beat Ms. Lemons on a number of occasions, once pushing her through a glass window, and that Ms. Lemons generally feared Mr. Lemons.
Ms. Lemons' son, who was thirteen at the time of trial, testified that when he was five and thereafter, Mr. Lemons forced him to "suck his penis" more than once while Ms. Lemons was in the room and did not protest. Mr. Lemons also ordered him to "lick [his] mother's vagina." Ms. Lemons' son also testified that his mother forced him to perform this act once when Mr. Lemons was not present. Ms. Lemons' son also performed oral sex on Mr. Lemons' younger daughter.
Both children were sometimes involved with sex with the parents at the same time in the living room, which was used as the parents' bedroom. Both children observed the other performing sexual acts on their parents. Abuse of Ms. Lemons' son continued until 1991 when Protective Services intervened at the request of one of the older children; however, Ms. Lemons did not participate for two years in the abuse of her son because he would bite or pull away or "wouldn't do it right." The evidence adduced at trial revealed no repercussions against Ms. Lemons for her refusal to participate.
Ms. Lemons and the children also testified that Mr. Lemons was an alcoholic who beat them all regularly. The parents forced the children to kneel on uncooked rice as a punishment, sometimes for hours. Mr. Lemons and Ms. Lemons disciplined the children by beating them over different parts of their bodies with "Mr. Butt Stick," a stick approximately eighteen inches long and 1.5 inches thick with a drawing of a face and the words "Butt Stick" on it. 9 The parents also admitted disciplining Ms. Lemons' son by locking him in the basement overnight.
The record indicates Ms. Lemons left the household with the children at least twice. She testified that she returned each time because she feared becoming a welfare mother. The record does not reveal that she suffered any repercussions for leaving.
Mr. Lemons' older daughter testified that Mr. Lemons told them that he was a god, and that they were demons. He forbade them to attend church because they would only hear lies there. At trial, Mr. Lemons' younger daughter testified that Ms. Lemons' son wished Mr. Lemons and Ms. Lemons would die, but that she wanted them to live so they would suffer like they made her suffer because "death is too good for them." 10
The defendants both testified and denied that any sexual abuse took place in their household. They accused the victims of fabricating the charges to get back at Mr. Lemons for being a strict disciplinarian. At the end of the trial, counsel for Ms. Lemons requested an instruction on duress. The trial judge refused to give the instruction because Ms. Lemons' testimony, consistent with her theory of the case, denied the acts ever occurred. Counsel also requested an instruction on CSC II 11 for the counts regarding cunnilingus by Mr. Lemons' daughter, arguing that the jury could construe the girl's testimony to establish either oral contact or facial contact. 12 The judge rejected the instruction as inconsistent with the evidence. Mr. Lemons expressly informed the court that he did not want any instructions on offenses other than CSC I.
The jury convicted both defendants on all counts. Detroit Recorder's Court Judge A. George Best sentenced Ms. Lemons to one life term and two terms of 50 to 80 years' imprisonment. The judge sentenced Mr. Lemons to one life term and two terms of 60 to 90 years' imprisonment.
The Court of Appeals, in an unpublished per curiam opinion, reversed Ms. Lemons' convictions on the basis that the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury on duress and CSC II. The Court affirmed Mr. Lemons' convictions, but reversed his two sentences of 60 to 90 years as excessive under People v. Moore, 432 Mich. 311, 439 N.W.2d 684 (1989), in light of the defendant's age, despite its having concluded the sentences were proportionate. The prosecutor appealed, and we granted leave to appeal. 450 Mich. 993, 548 N.W.2d 639 (1996). We reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals and reinstate Ms. Lemons' convictions and Mr. Lemons' sentences.
A. Duress Instruction
Ms. Lemons testified at trial and denied that any acts of sexual abuse took place in her household. On direct examination, the focus of her testimony was her relationship with her husband and its attendant physical abuse. She testified that throughout their relationship, which began in 1981 and resulted in a marriage in 1982, Mr. Lemons' behavior and alcohol abuse gradually worsened.
Ms. Lemons testified that the physical abuse began with grabbing and progressed to open-handed slapping and later full-fledged beating with fists. 13 She also testified that she was forced or intimidated by Mr. Lemons to do things she did not want to do, including "disciplin[ing] the kids right or ... clean[ing] the house the way he wanted it, or it just didn't matter what." Mr. Lemons' "total control" resulted in physical bruises as well as fear of Mr. Lemons and low self-esteem. Ms. Lemons tried to leave at...
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