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No. 132042
| People of the State of Michigan, |
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Jerrold E. Schrotenboer |
Plaintiff-Appellant, |
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(Appeal from Ct of Appeals) |
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(Jackson - Schmucker, C.) |
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| Katherine Sue Dendel, |
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Valerie R. Newman |
| Defendant-Appellee. |
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| __________________________________________ |
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Click to view briefs in Adobe format:
Plaintiff-Appellant's Application for Leave to Appeal>>
Plaintiff-Appellant's Supplemental Brief>>
Defendant-Appellee's Brief in Opposition to Application for Leave to Appeal >>
Background
At trial, the prosecutor alleged that Katherine Dendel killed her live-in partner of nearly thirty years, Paul Michael Burley, by injecting him with insulin. Dendel denied this, and theorized that Burley either took his own life or died from the side effects of the many medications he was taking for his various ailments. Dendel was charged with first-degree murder and, after a bench trial, was found guilty of second-degree murder. She was sentenced to a prison term of seven and one-half to fifteen years. Dendel filed a motion for a new trial, claiming that she received ineffective assistance of trial counsel. Following an evidentiary hearing, the trial court denied her motion. Dendel appealed, and the Court of Appeals reversed in a split unpublished decision. The majority held that Dendel was denied the effective assistance of counsel when counsel failed to present expert testimony on the cause of Burley’s death. The dissenting Court of Appeals judge would have affirmed the trial court’s denial of the motion for a new trial. The prosecutor appeals.
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