SIDE BAR: SPOTLIGHT ON TWO HISTORIC CASES OF JUDGE DONAHUE

ST. JOSEPH – Berrien County Trial Judge John Donahue has presided over many cases during his 13-year plus career on the bench and last week commented on two of his more memorable cases.

The first case involved the Harbor Shores golf course and the New Products Company. The company had claimed that they owned part of the golf course’s 18^th fairway and wanted it back. They first filed suit in 2011, a year after the golf course had been completed.

Judge Donahue heard testimony in late 2016 and ruled in March. He ended up ruling in Harbor Shores’ favor and writing his longest opinion, at 75 pages.

The other case was his most recent as he handled the appeal of Michael Johnson in one of the very few criminal cases he’s been involved in. Johnson was 17 when he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the second-degree murder of Sue Ellen Machemer, a classmate.

Johnson although sentenced to life in prison with the chance for parole has never had the opportunity to have a parole hearing. “It was a very unique case and a sad and difficult case,” Donahue said. “There were a great number of people including the victim’s family supporting parole.”

He called cases like Johnson’s the “step children” of recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings. Those rulings called life without parole sentences for juvenile offenders convicted of first degree murder unconstitutional but did not mention cases like Johnson’s where the juveniles were convicted of something besides first-degree murder.

Donahue ruled that Johnson should be resentenced to a specific term of years under the guidelines set down in recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings for juvenile life without parole cases. The high court ruled that juveniles’ brains are different than adults’ and that should be considered.

“There might not be anything wrong with longer terms for those getting life with the chance for parole sentences, but everybody should be on the same page,” he said. “In this case, he should at least have a hearing, he’s been a model prisoner.”

Berrien County Prosecutor Michael Sepic announced earlier last week that his office was appealing Donahue’s ruling. Sepic acknowledged that many have called for Johnson’s release but said that is up to a parole board and the Governor.

Sepic said his office believes Judge Donahue erred in his legal analysis and that his decision could affect other cases. He said his office has a responsibility to make sure the law is followed.

“The reason this is important to other cases is that the natural extension of Judge Donahue’s decision is that any 17 year old (an adult for criminal law purposes in Michigan) convicted of any crime would have to be sentenced using the Miller factors,” he wrote in a press release. “That is not what the United States Supreme Court requires.”