Chapter 16: Automatic Waiver Proceedings
Part A—Overview of Automatic Waiver Proceedings
Part B—Arraignments and Preliminary Examinations
Part C—Juvenile Sentencing Hearings
Part D—Review Requirements
Part E—Juvenile Probation Violations
In this chapter. . .
When a juvenile who is 14, 15, or 16 years old commits a specified juvenile violation, the prosecutor may elect to initiate automatic waiver proceedings by filing a complaint in district court rather than a petition in the Family Division of Circuit Court. If the juvenile is bound over for trial following a preliminary examination, he or she faces trial in a court of general criminal jurisdiction.
Part A of this chapter provides an overview of the automatic waiver process and discusses the procedural requirements for initiating an automatic waiver proceeding.
Part B discusses the procedural requirements for arraignments and preliminary examinations in automatic waiver proceedings. A complete discussion of the rules of criminal procedure applicable to circuit court proceedings is beyond the scope of this benchbook. For information regarding pleas and trials in courts of general criminal jurisdiction, see the Michigan Judicial Institute’s Criminal Proceedings Benchbook, Vol. 1, Chapters 6 and 12.
Part C discusses the requirements for juvenile sentencing hearings in automatic waiver proceedings. If a juvenile is convicted of a specified juvenile violation in an automatic waiver proceeding, the juvenile must be sentenced in the same manner as an adult if the conviction is for any of the 12 very serious specified juvenile violations enumerated in MCL 769.1(1)(a)-(l). If a juvenile is convicted of an offense that is not included in the list of crimes requiring imposition of adult sentence, the court must hold a juvenile sentencing hearing to determine whether to impose an adult sentence or to place the juvenile on probation and commit him or her to state wardship.
Part D discusses the review requirements that are applicable when the court places the juvenile on probation and commits him or her to state wardship.
Part E discusses probation violation hearing and revocation requirements that apply when probation and commitment are ordered. For information regarding probation violation when adult sentence is imposed, see the Michigan Judicial Institute’s Criminal Proceedings Benchbook, Vol. 3, Chapter 2.
Related issues are discussed in the following portions of this benchbook:
•Comparison of waiver and designated case proceedings, Section 1.11;
•Jurisdiction, Section 2.6;
•Detention, Section 3.8;
•Pretrial motions, including motions to suppress evidence, Chapter 7;
•Probation violation procedures in delinquency cases, Chapter 11;
•Sentencing, review, and probation violation procedures in designated proceedings, Chapter 15, Parts D, E, and F;
•Prosecutorial charging discretion with respect to specified juvenile violations, Section 16.4(A);
•Appointment of counsel under the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission Act (MIDCA), MCL 780.981 et seq., Chapter 17;
•Imposition of adult sentences upon juveniles, Chapter 19;
•Review of referee’s recommendations and appeals, Chapter 20; and
•Collection of biometric data, including fingerprints, and recordkeeping requirements, Chapter 21.
Part A—Overview of Automatic Waiver Proceedings
The automatic waiver process allows “prosecutors [to] choose to ‘waive’ certain juvenile offenders into the circuit court to be tried as adults[,]” without the requirement of a hearing in the Family Division. People v Conat, 238 Mich App 134, 140, 142 (1999).
The initiation of automatic waiver proceedings is governed by MCL 764.1f, MCL 600.606, and MCL 712A.2(a)(1).
MCL 764.1f(1) allows the prosecutor to charge a juvenile who is between the ages of 14 and 181 as an adult in a court of general criminal jurisdiction if the juvenile has committed any of the specified juvenile violations that are enumerated in MCL 764.1f(2).
Under MCL 600.606, “[t]he circuit court is given jurisdiction over juveniles at least fourteen years of age who commit . . . ‘specified juvenile violations,’ so that it may hear the automatic waiver cases where the prosecutor charges the juvenile as an adult.” People v Conat, 238 Mich App 134, 141 (1999).
“Correspondingly, [under MCL 712A.2(a)(1),] the normally exclusive jurisdiction of the family court over juveniles is limited in cases where a juvenile at least fourteen years of age is charged with any of the ‘specified juvenile violations,’ so that the family court only has jurisdiction if the prosecutor chooses to file a petition in the family court instead of authorizing a complaint and warrant to proceed against the juvenile as an adult.” Conat, 238 Mich App at 141.2
MCR 6.901(B) provides that the rules in subchapter 6.900 “apply to criminal proceedings in the district court and the circuit court concerning a juvenile against whom the prosecuting attorney has authorized the filing of a criminal complaint charging a specified juvenile violation instead of approving the filing of a petition in the family division of the circuit court.”
Following the filing of a complaint and warrant in district court, the rules in subchapter 6.900 “take precedence over, but are not exclusive of, the rules of procedure applicable to criminal actions against adult offenders.” 3
C.Video and Audio Proceedings
“The courts may use telephonic, voice, or videoconferencing technology under [subchapter 6.900 of the Michigan Court Rules] as prescribed by MCR 6.006.” MCR 6.901(C). See Section 1.4(B) for discussion of video and audio technology.
1. “[T]he birthday rule of age calculation applies in Michigan.” People v Woolfolk, 304 Mich App 450, 504 (2014), aff’d 479 Mich 23 (2014). Under the birthday rule, “‘a person attains a given age on the anniversary date of his or her birth.’” Woolfolk, 304 Mich App at 461, 464, 506 (holding that the common-law rule of age calculation, under which “‘one becomes of full age the first moment of the day before’ the anniversary of his or her birth,” is inapplicable in Michigan, and that the defendant, who shot and killed the victim on the day before the defendant’s eighteenth birthday, “was not yet eighteen years of age when the shooting occurred”) (emphasis supplied; citations omitted).
2. “A circuit court’s authority to exercise jurisdiction over a defendant charged with a felony committed as a minor constitutes a question of personal, not subject matter, jurisdiction.” People v Kiyoshk, 493 Mich 923, 923 (2013) (quoting People v Lown, 488 Mich 242, 268 (2011), and holding that because “‘[a] party may stipulate to, waive, or implicitly consent to personal jurisdiction[,]’” the juvenile defendant, “by entering a guilty plea in the circuit court[] and failing to contest the circuit court’s jurisdiction, . . . implicitly consented to that court’s exercise of personal jurisdiction”).
3. See Chapter 14 for discussion of traditional waiver proceedings.