The Michigan Court of Appeals has once again vacated a sentence imposed by a Michigan judge known for giving higher sentences than what guidelines recommend and making controversial comments from the bench, citing his “blatant refusal” to follow precedent that bars judges from considering acquitted conduct in sentencing (article available here).
The appeals court said a different judge will now sentence the defendant, Dawn Marie Dixon-Bey, who fatally stabbed her boyfriend on Valentine’s Day in 2015.
"If a trial judge is unable to follow the law as determined by a higher appellate court, the trial judge is in the wrong line of work," the appeals court said in its opinion.
The case began in 2017 when McBain sentenced Dixon-Bey to serve a minimum of 35 years in prison, 15 years over the recommended guidelines, for the second-degree murder of her boyfriend Greg Stack. During the sentencing hearing, McBain made comments to Dixon-Bey such as "I hope you are haunted by the vision of you stabbing him. After this day, you don't exist," and that the one major flaw Stack had was "that he stayed in a relationship with you."
In 2020, the appeals court derided Jackson County Judge John McBain for the sentence he gave Dixon-Bey and said he treated the defendant as if she was convicted of premeditated murder and "grilled her" in court. At the time, the judges' panel overturned the initial ruling, but McBain ignored it and gave Dixon-Bey a 30-year sentence.
McBain has previously been in the news for helping tackle a defendant who resisted courtroom handcuffing, for aggressive questioning of defense witnesses that resulted in a murder retrial, and for ordering a defense lawyer to be locked up during a lunch break after refusing instructions to sit down.