# People v. Harding

> Michigan Supreme Court · April 7, 2006 · 443 Mich. 693

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9700852

## Case

- **Full name:** People v. Harding; People v. Bush
- **Court:** Michigan Supreme Court
- **Decided:** April 7, 2006
- **Citations:** 443 Mich. 693; 506 N.W.2d 482
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Boyle
- **Judges:** Riley, Boyle, Griffin, Mallett, Brickley, Levin, Cavanagh
- **Cited by:** 45 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- **Red flag:** Abrogated on other grounds by People v. Ream, 481 Mich. 223 (2008).
- Negative treatments: 1
- Distinguished by: 0
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9700852

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- noting that the traditional lesser included offense test is appropriate where it is probative of legislative intent, but recognizing that the test is not appropriate for predicate-based offenses

## Opinion text

Boyle, J.
(concurring). I concur in parts i, ii(a), and v of Justice Brickley’s opinion and in parts ii(a) and ii(b) of Justice Riley’s opinion. I write separately to express my concern regarding the unsettling potential of an open-ended definition of proximate cause in which assaults may become murders years after the initial incident upon the factfinders’ determination that death was the "natural” result of the original act.
I agree that these cases do not present an appropriate vehicle to consider whether, and when, a higher burden of proof of causation should be imposed in cases of long delayed death. See, e.g., *735 People v Stevenson, 416 Mich 383, 393, n 4 ; 331 NW2d 143 (1982). Both defendants clearly intended exactly the result that occurred. The intent was to inflict a fatal wound that would have caused death, and eventually did, and "contributory negligence of the person harmed is not a defense to a criminal prosecution.” Perkins & Boyce, Criminal Law (3d ed), p 781, n 74.
Nevertheless, the astonishing advancements of medical science, both in prolonging life and in identifying contributing causes of death, may suggest that in another context the question of causation, in fact and in law, should be measured by a different calculus.
The complexity of the question counsels judicious use by the prosecutor of the charging discretion approved by the Court today.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9700852. Public record. Not legal advice.