Michigan v. Gerald Raynard Fuller

The federal circuit courts have uniformly held that a sentencing judge may consider conduct for which the defendant has been acquitted, and this Court has held that “a jury’s verdict of acquittal does not prevent the sentencing court from considering conduct underlying the acquitted charge, so long as that conduct has been proved by a preponderance of the evidence,” and that “application of the preponderance standard at sentencing generally satisfies due process.” The Michigan Supreme Court has said nonetheless that it was somehow writing on a “clean slate,” and that due process does bar sentencing courts from considering conduct for which the defendant was acquitted when sentencing on the offense of conviction, a holding the Michigan Court of Appeals was obligated to follow in this case. The question presented is: Should this Court grant certiorari to settle the conflict of authority between state courts and the federal circuits, and among state courts themselves, as to whether due process bars sentencing courts from considering conduct for which the defendant was acquitted when sentencing on the offense of conviction? -i-