People v. Lowe

Decision Date13 August 2009
Docket NumberDocket No. 137284.
Citation773 N.W.2d 1,484 Mich. 718
PartiesPEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Jamie Lynn LOWE, Defendant-Appellant.
CourtMichigan Supreme Court

Michael A. Cox, Attorney General, B. Eric Restuccia, Solicitor General, and Neal A. Brady, Prosecuting Attorney, for the people.

State Appellate Defender (by Brandy Y. Robinson) and Ronald D. Ambrose, for the defendant.

Opinion

MARKMAN, J.

This case presents the question whether MCL 333.7413(2), by authorizing a trial court to enhance the sentence of a defendant who is a repeat drug offender to a "term not more than twice the term otherwise authorized," allows the trial court to double both the defendant's minimum and maximum sentences. We answer this question in the affirmative. Accordingly, defendant's sentence is affirmed.

I. BACKGROUND

Defendant pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine, MCL 333.7403(2)(b)(i), with a sentence enhancement as a repeat drug offender, MCL 333.7413(2). At sentencing, the trial court calculated defendant's minimum sentence range under the sentencing guidelines at 10 to 23 months. Pursuant to § 7413(2), the trial court, relying on People v. Williams, 268 Mich.App. 416, 707 N.W.2d 624 (2005), doubled both the minimum and maximum sentences and sentenced defendant to 46 months to 20 years in prison.1 Defendant did not object to the sentence, but sought leave to appeal in the Court of Appeals, contending that the trial court had erred by doubling his minimum sentence. The Court of Appeals denied leave to appeal in a split decision, and defendant applied for leave to appeal in this Court. We heard oral argument on his application.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

This Court reviews de novo questions of statutory interpretation. People v. Schaefer, 473 Mich. 418, 427, 703 N.W.2d 774 (2005).

III. ANALYSIS

MCL 333.7413(2) provides for enhanced sentencing for defendants convicted of a second or subsequent controlled substance offense Except as otherwise provided in subsections (1) and (3), an individual convicted of a second or subsequent offense under this article may be imprisoned for a term not more than twice the term otherwise authorized or fined an amount not more than twice that otherwise authorized, or both.[2]

Defendant argues that the phrase "the term otherwise authorized" only refers to the statutory maximum sentence, and that the trial court therefore erred by doubling the minimum sentence guideline range. Consequently, his minimum sentence should have been within the original minimum sentence guideline range of 10 to 23 months. The prosecutor responds that, based on Michigan's indeterminate sentencing scheme,3 "the term otherwise authorized" refers to the period demarcated by both the minimum and maximum sentences and thus the court correctly doubled that "term" by doubling both the minimum and maximum sentences. Obviously, the resolution of the instant dispute rests on the meaning of "the term otherwise authorized."

The Court's responsibility in interpreting a statute is to determine and give effect to the Legislature's intent. People v. Koonce, 466 Mich. 515, 518, 648 N.W.2d 153 (2002). The statute's words are the most reliable indicator of the Legislature's intent and should be interpreted based on their ordinary meaning and the context within which they are used in the statute. People v. Morey, 461 Mich. 325, 330, 603 N.W.2d 250 (1999). Once the Court discerns the Legislature's intent, no further judicial construction is required or permitted "because the Legislature is presumed to have intended the meaning it plainly expressed." People v. Stone, 463 Mich. 558, 562, 621 N.W.2d 702 (2001).

The word "term" is relevantly defined as "the time or period through which something lasts" or "a period of time to which limits have been set." Random House Webster's College Dictionary (1997). The "term" that a court is permitted to double in § 7413(2) is the "term otherwise authorized." "[O]therwise authorized" undoubtedly refers to the term provided by law and for which a defendant would be imprisoned absent any enhancement under § 7413(2). Thus, the "term otherwise authorized" is a "period of time," or more specifically a "period of time to which limits have been set," by law.

Because Michigan generally adheres to an indeterminate sentencing scheme,4 the term for which a defendant would "otherwise" be imprisoned absent an enhancement is not a definite period "through which [imprisonment] lasts." Rather, it is an indefinite "period" that is defined by a minimum and maximum sentence. In the instant case, for example, defendant's unenhanced sentence would likely have been 23 months to 10 years.5 This sentence is best understood as "the term otherwise authorized," because: (a) it identifies the "period of time" that a defendant has to remain in prison as a function of "limits [that] have been set" by the minimum sentence guidelines and the statutory maximum;6 and (b) this "period of time" has been calculated as "authorized" by law.

That the indeterminate sentence that a defendant typically receives under Michigan law constitutes a "term" is supported by the ordinary parlance used by the courts of this state to describe indeterminate prison sentences. See, e.g., People v. Smith, 482 Mich. 292, 297, 754 N.W.2d 284 (2008) ("The judge sentenced defendant to three concurrent terms of 30 to 50 years' imprisonment ....") (emphasis added); People v. Williams, 475 Mich. 245, 248, 716 N.W.2d 208 (2006) ("[Defendant] was sentenced to a one- to fifteen-year term of imprisonment.") (emphasis added); People v. Conyer, 281 Mich.App. 526, 527, 762 N.W.2d 198 (2008) ("Defendant was sentenced to serve consecutive prison terms of 30 to 120 months ....") (emphasis added); People v. Matuszak, 263 Mich.App. 42, 45, 687 N.W.2d 342 (2004) ("Defendant was sentenced to concurrent prison terms of fifteen to thirty years ....") (emphasis added). These are only a tiny sampling of the hundreds of decisions in which a defendant's indeterminate sentence range is consistently referred to as a "term."7 Such ordinary and persistent use of "term" to describe this range establishes clearly, in our judgment, that the sentence expressed by reference to both the minimum and maximum sentences constitutes a "term."

Thus, under Michigan's scheme of indeterminate sentencing and the courts' implementation of that scheme, the "term otherwise authorized" is not exclusively the minimum sentence or the maximum sentence, but it is the actual indeterminate sentence, which is defined by both the minimum and maximum limits for that sentence. In other words, the "period of time" that a defendant could potentially spend in prison lies somewhere between the minimum and the maximum allowable sentences, and accordingly those sentences operate in tandem to define the "term" for which a defendant has been sentenced. In order to double this "term," a trial court necessarily has to double both the minimum and maximum sentences because both are required to constitute a particular "term."8 Accordingly, § 7413(2)'s authorization for a trial court to imprison a defendant for a "term not more than twice the term otherwise authorized" signifies that both the minimum and maximum sentences must be doubled to fashion an enhanced sentence that is twice the "term otherwise authorized."9

Moreover, interpreting "the term otherwise authorized" as the indeterminate sentence created by both the minimum and maximum sentences is the only way to give consistent effect to § 7413(2)'s directive that the defendant be "imprisoned for a term not more than twice the term otherwise authorized," when the trial court doubles the "term otherwise authorized." (Emphasis added.) The alternative interpretation suggested by defendant, with which the dissent agrees, creates a risk that this statutory directive will be violated, because defendant would have this Court treat the maximum sentence, but not the minimum sentence, as a "term," even though both sentences, equivalently, constitute periods of time through which defendant's prison time may last.10 Assume that defendant is sentenced to 23 months to 20 years.11 It would be impossible for defendant to serve this maximum sentence, because to do so would mean that defendant will have been imprisoned for a term "more than twice the term otherwise authorized," since defendant's interpretation necessarily means that the minimum sentence must be treated as a "term otherwise authorized." That is, the statute itself would have been violated because defendant's term of imprisonment, i.e., 20 years, would be 10 times longer than the 23-month "term" that defendant asserts is "otherwise authorized," which directly conflicts with the statutory requirement that defendant can only be imprisoned for a term "not more than twice" that "term."

By contrast, when the "term otherwise authorized" is interpreted as the indeterminate sentence designated by both the minimum and maximum sentences, and when both of these sentences are doubled, the defendant will never be imprisoned for a term 10 times the unenhanced term. Using the previous illustration, when both the minimum and maximum sentences are doubled, the 23-month minimum sentence would be doubled to 46 months, the 10-year maximum sentence would be doubled to 20 years, and, accordingly, the "term otherwise authorized," i.e., 23 months to 10 years, would be doubled to 46 months to 20 years. When a trial court considers both the minimum and maximum sentences as the "term otherwise authorized," and doubles each of these to form the enhanced term, the enhanced term will never be 10 times as long as the "term otherwise authorized," but will always be exactly twice as long as the unenhanced term.

Finally, the Legislature's authorization for a defendant to be imprisoned for an enhanced term is most reasonably understood to communicate that the defendant should, in fact, serve more time—indeed as a...

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