“Law Day” — the annual May 1 celebration of the rule of law in the United States — is scheduled early this year in Midland with a visit by the justices of the Michigan Supreme Court.
The court will hold oral argument at the Midland Center for the Arts on Wednesday, April 17.
While the court normally hears oral argument at the Michigan Hall of Justice in Lansing, the court holds oral arguments in different communities around the state as part of its “Court Community Connections” program.
The program is aimed principally at educating high school students about the court and Michigan’s justice system.
In the audience for the oral argument will be students from Bullock Creek, Calvary Baptist, Coleman, H.H. Dow, Freeland, Juvenile Care Center, Meridian, Midland Christian, Midland and Windover high schools, as well as local home-schooled students.
Members of the Northwood University Mock Trial team and the Saginaw Valley State University Law Club will also attend.
Midland County Circuit Judge Michael J. Beale and attorneys from the Midland County Bar Association are mentoring students as they study the case the court will hear.
After the oral argument, the students will meet with the attorneys in the case — Matthew A. Fillmore of the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office and John D. Roach Jr. of Troy — for a debriefing.
Chief Justice Robert P. Young, Jr. said that the court started “Court Community Connections” in 2007 “to show a side of the legal process that’s not very well known or understood.”
“Most films or television dramas about the law focus on trials because that is where the drama is,” he said. “The irony is the appellate process can have a far greater impact on a larger number of people, yet it receives very little attention. Through this program, students not only learn about the appellate process; they get to see it in action.”
Midland County Probate Judge Dorene S. Allen praised the Midland County Bar Association and the Midland Center for the Arts for their support.
“This event would not be possible without their cooperation,” said the judge, whose responsibilities include presiding over Midland’s juvenile court,” she said. “This event is a great opportunity for our young people to see the rule of law at work. I can think of no better way to celebrate Law Day.”
The case involves Chanda Valencia Smith-Anthony, who was charged with unarmed robbery, second-degree retail fraud and possession of marijuana after a department store security officer accused her of stealing some cologne, according to court records.
He followed her to the parking lot and a scuffle ensued.
The prosecution dismissed the marijuana and retail fraud charges and Smith-Anthony was acquitted by a jury of unarmed robbery but convicted of the person.” She was sentenced to four to 20 years’s imprisonment.
Smith-Anthony appealed, and in a 2-1 published decision, the Court of Appeals reversed her conviction.
MCL 750.357 punishes “larceny from the person” – but Smith-Anthony’s actions did not amount to “stealing from the person of another,” the majority held.
The majority said it did not condone Smith-Anthony’s actions or suggest that she acted lawfully, but “[w]e must take the charges as we find them, and defendant’s actions did not support a charge, let alone a conviction, under the plain language of the larceny-from-the-person statute.”
The dissenting judge said the prosecution only needed to establish that “the property was taken from the person or from the person’s immediate area of control or immediate presence.”
The dissent said that “the majority blurs the basic issue by asserting that no testimony ‘supported that [the security officer] ever possessed the fragrance box . . . .’” The security officer, as one protecting Macy’s property, had a superior right to the fragrance box than Smith-Anthony did, so it did not matter that the security officer had not touched the box,” the dissent maintained.
The prosecution appealed that ruling and the Supreme Court granted leave to appeal last October.
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