Derror Has Died - Will Stare Decisis Survive?
A split Supreme Court rendered its opinion in People v Feezel last week with Justice Cavanagh writing the majority opinion joined by Justices Kelly and Hathaway. Justice Weaver concurred in the result, presumably on both issues, but refused to agree that People v Crawford was correctly decided (she dissented there), and would not agree to using that case to justify reversing the defendant's conviction here. Interesting. Feezel was convicted of Leaving the Scene of Accident where Death has Resulted, OWI 2d Offense and Operating with any Amount of a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance Causing Death. On the night of the incident, Feezel was driving on Packard Road in Ypsilanti Township. It was dark and raining extremely hard. The victim, whose BAC was a .29, was walking down the middle of the five-lane road with his back to on-coming traffic. The accident reconstructionists agreed that Feezel would have had to have been traveling 15 MPH under those conditions in order to avoid h