Following the introduction of three bills in the Michigan House of Representatives that would provide more time and resources for prosecutors to handle re-sentencing cases, Levine & Levine Criminal Defense Attorney Anastase Markou told WWMT – Channel 3 that the original ruling was a long time in the making.
As introduced on June 24, the bills would extend the timeline on a Michigan Supreme Court decision that ruled courts must re-sentence all first-degree murder sentences for offenders between the ages of 19 and 20.
That decision came in April, and the original timeline for the courts was 90 days, which means every case would have had to be re-sentenced by July. The original ruling gave a minimum new sentence of 25-40 years for offenders and a maximum of 60. One of the bills offered a minimum sentence of 35-50 years and a maximum of 80.
Anastase Markou, a criminal defense lawyer with Levine & Levine in Kalamazoo, said the original ruling was a long time in the making.
“You have to consider whether or not a person is capable of being rehabilitated,” Markou told News Channel 3. “You have to consider whether or not this person is sentenced. Those are all the factors courts are supposed to consider when you have a mandatory sentence. None of those factors are considered at all.”
During a sentencing, defense attorneys look at factors in the Michigan Supreme Court decision and present evidence and information on each of those factors.
Markou foresees challenges about consistencies within the bills.
“They're trying to comply with what the Supreme Court has said,” he said in his interview. “But they've also pushed the envelope a little bit, and some of that's going to be challenged.”
Markou also anticipates having re-sentencing cases brought to him within the next year.
Watch the full interview, here.