People v. Bell

Order Supreme Court
Lansing, Michigan

September 23, 2005 Clifford W. Taylor,
Chief Justice

Michael F. Cavanagh
125375 Elizabeth A. Weaver
Marilyn Kelly
Rehearing No. 524 Maura D. Corrigan
Robert P. Young, Jr.
Stephen J. Markman,
Justices
PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN,

Plaintiff-Appellant,

v SC: 125375

COA: 233234

Wayne CC: 99-009228

MARLON BELL,

Defendant-Appellee.

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On order of the Court, a motion for rehearing is considered and, in lieu of granting
rehearing, the opinion of the Court is amended as follows:

The first sentence in Part I (slip opinion page 3) is amended to read: “On July 29,
1999, defendant was involved in the robbery and shooting deaths of Chanel Roberts and
Amanda Hodges.”

The second full sentence on slip opinion page 27 is amended to read: “Both the
trial court and the prosecutor objected to defense counsel’s use of peremptory challenges,
claiming that he was using them to exclude Caucasian venire members.”

In all other respects, the motion for rehearing is DENIED.

CAVANAGH, J., would grant rehearing.

KELLY, J., dissents and states as follows:

I would grant defendant’s motion for rehearing.

While the majority is willing to concede that it made minor errors in its recitation
of the facts, it ignores the issue underlying defendant’s motion: whether the trial court
erred by failing to follow the well-established procedures set forth in Batson v Kentucky,
476 US 79 (1986).
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I continue to believe that the trial court misapplied Batson. Because Batson errors
are structural in nature, they are not amenable to harmless error review and require
automatic reversal. Arizona v Fulminante, 499 US 279, 309-310 (1991), see also United
States v McFerron, 163 F3d 952, 955-956 (CA 6, 1998).

Regrettably, given that a structural error occurred in this case, defendant should
have a new trial.

I, CORBIN R. DAVIS, Clerk of the Michigan Supreme Court, certify that the
foregoing is a true and complete copy of the order entered at the direction of the Court.
September 23, 2005
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d0919 Clerk