Mich. Court Examines One Of Granholm's Last Acts
LANSING (AP) - A state attorney has urged the Michigan Supreme Court to let stand an unprecedented decision by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who made a prisoner eligible for possible release but then changed her mind in her final days in office.
A. Peter Govorchin asked justices to follow lower courts, which found that a governor's commutation decisions can't be challenged.
Granholm commuted Matthew Makowski's no-parole sentence in 2010. But she changed her position when the victim's family complained.
Justice Mary Beth Kelly signaled disagreement with Granholm's reversal because she already had signed a document. Justice David Viviano questioned why the secretary of state's office agreed to return the document.
Makowski was convicted of murder for arranging the robbery of a co-worker in Dearborn in 1988. Makowski didn't know the robbers would be armed.
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