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People v. Kulpinski10/17/2000
ifteen-year penalty when that fault played no role in causing the accident, permitting the driver's fault to be merely coincidental with the victim's death.
We agree with the concurrence that " he Legislature drafted the statute so that the intoxicated driver would be responsible for all consequences that flow from his decision to drive while intoxicated." . . . . We further conclude, however, that a victim's death was one of the consequences of a driver's decision to drive while intoxicated only when the driver's intoxication was a cause of that death. This is the crime that merits swift and sure punishment, not the unavoidable killing of another with a vehicle. [Id. at 257 259, ns 46, 47, 48 (emphasis added and in original).]
Thus, by emphasizing the causation requirement, the Supreme Court in Lardie highlighted the fact that the societal norm which the OUIL causing death statute seeks to address -- intoxicated driving - is different from the societal norm addressed by the crime of involuntary manslaughter, which conceivably encompasses a wide variety of behaviors constituting gross negligence and has no such intoxication requirement at all. Because our Supreme Court has made clear that the act of intoxicated driving, not "the unavoidable killing of another with a vehicle," is "the crime that merits swift and sure punishment," id. at 259, n 48, this foundation of the double jeopardy analysis in Price remains valid.
We conclude the Price Court's double jeopardy analysis stands independently of its now overturned conclusion that the statute contained no mens rea requirement. The fact that in Lardie, our Supreme Court decided OUIL causing death is a general intent crime does not change the fact that the OUIL statute and the involuntary manslaughter statute "prohibit conduct that violates distinct societal norms." Price, supra at 544. Thus, defendant cannot successfully argue the OUIL causing death statute's newly articulated status as a general intent, rather than strict liability, crime substantially undermines the double jeopardy analysis in Price, which focused on several indicia of legislative intent, not merely its now invalid description of OUIL causing death as a strict liability crime. For the same reasons, the Price Court's application of the Blockburger test with regard to defendant's double jeopardy challenge under the federal constitution likewise remains viable. This Court's conclusion in Price, supra at 545, that "each offense contains an element not in the other" is unchanged by the Lardie decision.
In sum, the double jeopardy analysis set forth in Price still governs the outcome of the identical issue raised in the present case. The offenses of involuntary manslaughter and OUIL causing death protect distinct societal norms, the amount of punishment for each statute does not involve a hierarchy of offenses, and each statute requires proof of an element which the other does not. Thus, pursuant to Price, supra, defendant's convictions and punishments under both statutes do not violate the Double Jeopardy Clauses of the United States and Michigan Constitutions. In so concluding, we reiterate the observations of our Supreme Court in Denio, supra at 709:
t must be remembered that "the Legislature's authority to define a single criminal `act' or `offense' is not diminished by the Double Jeopardy Clause." People v Wakeford, 418 Mich 95, 108; 341 NW2d 68 (1983). The Legislature is free to determine what activity constitutes a criminal offense subject to criminal penalty. . . . The Double Jeopardy Clauses restrict the courts from imposing more punishment than that intended by the Legislature. . . . Thus, if the Legislature desires, it may specifically
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