People of Michigan v. Gary Patrick Lewis

Opinion

STATE OF MICHIGAN

COURT OF APPEALS

PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, UNPUBLISHED July 21, 2016

Plaintiff-Appellee,

v No. 325782 Wayne Circuit Court

GARY PATRICK LEWIS, LC No. 14-006454-FH

Defendant-Appellant.

Before: TALBOT, C.J., and MURRAY and SERVITTO, JJ.

SERVITTO, J. (concurring).

I concur in the result reached by the majority—that defendant’s convictions should be vacated. However, I believe that because Michigan law holds that the complete denial of representation of counsel at a critical stage of the proceeding (here, the preliminary examination), is a structural error requiring automatic reversal (see, e.g., People v Duncan, 462 Mich 47, 51-52; 610 NW2d 551(2000)), that holding alone should represent the entirety of our opinion. The remaining analysis regarding structural error and the analyses of the remaining issues raised by defendant are unnecessary to our resolution of this case.

/s/ Deborah A. Servitto