Guidelines, Departure for Refusal to Admit Guilt Improper

People vJackson,474 Mich 996 (2006)(jan'06). The Michigan supreme court found the trial court's departure based on the defendant's "failure to step up to the plate...and admit....guilt" was improper.The exercise of the right to trial cannot be punished at sentencing. See alsoPeople v Conley,270 Mich App 301 (2006)(march'06), holding that consideration by the court of defendant's refusal to admit guilt isconstitutional error, and requires resentencing even in the absence of a guidelines scoring problem (despite MCL 769.34(10) which directs the court to affirm a sentence within the appropriate guidelines sentence range unless there is a scoring error or inaccurate information is relied upon).But seePeople v Dobek,274 Mich App 58 (2007)(jan'07),where the court, without acknowledgingConley,upheld a sentence within guidelines (judicial guidelines as the offense allegedly occurred in 1995), despite the trial court's harassment of defendant with the fact that he failed to provide the complainant closure by admitting to the offense after a jury convicted him.But see the MSC order inPeople v Hatchett,478 Mich 874 (2007)(march'07).