The Michigan Supreme Court has ruled its decision to dismiss indictments in the Flint water cases only applies to future situations and not retroactively to other criminal defendants who want to challenge their convictions.
Todd Douglas Robinson wanted his 2012 murder conviction reversed because he was charged by a judge without a preliminary examination.
The Michigan Supreme Court declared that kind of one-judge grand jury unconstitutional in 2022. That led the court to toss out indictments against members of Governor Rick Snyder’s administration who were charged over their alleged role in the Flint water crisis.
The ruling said the one-person grand jury unconstitutionally combines the roles of judge and prosecutor and held the Flint water defendants were denied a fair chance to challenge evidence used to issue the indictments.
But, in Robinson's case, the court ruled Wednesday that the 2022 decision does not apply retroactively to cases where there is already a conviction.
In a unanimous ruling, the justices held its decision in the Flint water cases “concerns the process of getting to trial, not the fairness of the trial itself.”
The court’s decision also said "calling the resulting convictions into question when they resulted from fair trials that applied the most stringent beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard would unnecessarily hinder the administration of justice in Michigan.”
