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Excluding an Accessory After the Fact From a Felony-Firearm Conviction

NCJ Number
137169
Journal
Wayne Law Review Volume: 37 Issue: 4 Dated: (Summer 1991) Pages: 1951-1967
Author(s)
G E Perlmuter
Date Published
1991
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This legal note focuses on how the Michigan felony-firearm statute is applied when the underlying crime is accessory after the fact.
Abstract
The applicable language of the statute indicates that persons who carry or have in their possession a firearm when they commit or attempt to commit a felony are guilty of a felony and will be imprisoned for 2 years. Although the Michigan legislature specifically declined to delineate which felonies constitute an underlying felony that can serve as a basis for a felony-firearm conviction, one purpose of the statute is to deter violent or dangerous crimes. Another clear purpose of the statute is to add an additional punishment for criminals using firearms to commit crimes. An accessory after the fact, who hides the weapon used in the original crime, is not actually using a gun to further a criminal act. In contrast, possessing the gun is the criminal act. The Michigan legislature can improve the felony-firearm statute in several ways. The legislature should conform the statute to those of other jurisdictions such as New York or California. By restricting application of the statute to the more dangerous malum in se offenses, ambiguities in the scope of its application can be removed. An alternative is to exempt from the statute all persons convicted of felonies in which the use or possession of a firearm is a necessary element of the predicate offense. This will permit all current statutory exemptions to remain in effect and allow an additional exception for an accessory after the fact. 72 footnotes

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