House Passes Package Repealing Outdated Laws

Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | 8/28/2015 | Geneva Ruppert

[MichCapCon]

There are over 3,000 criminal statutes in Michigan, but a recent unanimous vote in the Michigan House will trim that number, eliminating several outdated laws in the first step toward simplifying the state’s enormous penal code.

Overcriminalization has recently come into the spotlight in Michigan as part of a larger movement pursuing criminal justice reform. In 2014, the Mackinac Center and the Manhattan Institute published a study on the topic, Overcriminalizing the Wolverine State. The study advocated for clarification and consolidation of the current criminal code, guidelines to govern the creation of new criminal offenses and enactment of a default mens rea provision — requiring the state to consider a person’s intent before convicting them of a crime.

Since its publication, several organizations have relied on the research, and Gov. Rick Snyder used it as the basis for several recommendations he gave in a recent plan to reform the criminal justice system. The House Fiscal Agency also pointed to the study in its analysis of the bills passed in the House this week.

As reported by MLive, those bills include measures to repeal such irrelevancies as prohibitions of duels, trespassing in oddly specific areas and using the term “lost manhood” in advertising. Some of the more pertinent repeals include laws that criminalize embellishing the national anthem, cursing in front of women and children and hosting a walkathon or similar contest of endurance.

I have never trespassed in a huckleberry marsh and I do my best not to embellish The Star Spangled-Banner beyond sense or recognition, but the existence of these laws is a sobering insight into the state of Michigan’s current criminal code. Even after the repeal of these laws, there will still be over 3,000 that I (and almost every other Michigander) could potentially break without intention or malice.

The recent House repeals address laws that are mostly redundant and silly, but many others among those 3,000 fall into the dangerous category of unknown and enforceable. That’s how people go to jail for keeping rabbits.

There is much more work to be done on the subject of overcriminalization, but the House's action is a good start toward more meaningful reforms.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

All laws should have a sunset provision in them.

At the end of that time they must be brought up, revised and passed again.

They may not be passed in bulk but one at a time.

This would keep us from having outdated and silly laws and would keep our legislators busy so they have less time to get up to mischief.

[equaviator]

There are many bigger fish to fry in Michigan.

[relictele]

But what will lazy local newspaper columnists write about when they need a bit of clean humor?

Actually, the question answers itself: lazy local newspaper columnists helped to kill off their local newspaper by writing the same article over and over again and boring the readers to tears.

On a serious note, momentum requires an impetus. Repeal of a law about letting hogs loose on the public square or singing arias on an odd-numbered Tuesday sound silly and/or quaint but they are the first step in repeal of laws that are causing harm and oppression in the here and now.

[bk1000]

So now any gang banger that shoots another can just claim it was a duel.

[The_Reader_David]

There actually was a case in California a little while back in which the state wanted to charge a fellow with murder, but there were lots of witnesses that attested to both the accused and the victim having agreed to settle a dispute “like men”, had fetched their guns from their cars and proceeded to shoot at each other. At that time (I believe the law has since been changed) the circumstances precluded a charge of murder, allowing only a charge of dueling, which, if I recall, carried only a two year sentence. The fellow also had a lawyer with the wit to realize the state of California law a the time.