Ruling Could Tip Cadden, Chin Cases

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A one paragraph ruling issued late last week by the Michigan Supreme Court could have a major effect on the murder trial of two former pharmacists charged with the death of 11 patients in the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak.
In the ruling the state's highest court sent appeals filed by Glenn Chin and Barry Cadden back to the state Court of Appeals, which had earlier denied the appeals concluding that Cadden and Chin's lawyers had failed to prove their appeal had to be considered immediately rather than waiting for an actual trial on the charges in Livingston Circuit Court.
The defendants are appealing the decision of Livingston District Court Judge Shauna Murphy that there was sufficient evidence of their guilt to send the case before a jury.
In its ruling last week, the high court sent the case back to the appeals court with instructions to reconsider its decision in light of findings in a 2003 case in which a mother was charged with murder in the death of her daughter.
In that case a judge had ruled that an appeal should be denied for the same grounds cited by the appeals court in the Cadden and Chin cases.
In its decision in 2003, the high court ruled that an appeal could not be denied simply on the basis that lawyers had failed to prove the issue had to be addressed immediately.
"This reason was flawed," the court ruled, adding that the denial must include a substantive reason for the decision, addressing whether the bindover denial or affirmation was justified by the evidence.
In the 2003 decision in the case against Donna Yost, the lower court had declined to bind over the defendant for trial.
She ultimately pleaded guilty to a reduced child abuse charge and was sentenced to three years probation.
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