The Michigan Supreme Court asked on Tuesday for additional briefing in a Livingston County criminal case that asks whether shoes are a dangerous weapon.
In its one-page order, the court ordered the parties in People v. Oslund to file supplemental briefs within 28 days to address whether the lower court’s application of the relevant state statute “with respect to the ‘armed with a dangerous weapon’ requirement, would have been an error that concerned the personal or the subject-matter jurisdiction of the criminal division” of the circuit court.
Evan Andrew Oslund, a special needs teen, was charged as an adult with assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder for an Aug. 31, 2021, assault on a 16-year-old boy. He is charged as an aider and abetter for filming the attack and distributing the video, which shows co-defendants repeatedly kicking the victims, causing bruising, a concussion and post-traumatic stress disorder.
During oral arguments in April, Oslund’s attorney said the case wasn’t about the shoes necessarily, but was about “judicial and legislative gatekeeping” and how courts are asked to evaluate evidence.
In a 2-1 decision, the Michigan Court of Appeals agreed that the footwear worn by the attacker was a dangerous weapon that allowed the prosecution to automatically charge the teen assailants as adults.
