LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Court of Appeals has agreed to hear Larry Nassar's appeal for a new sentencing hearing.
The court will decide if Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina was biased when she sentenced Nassar last January. It will also decide if Aquilina should have been allowed to hear Nassar's original motion for a new sentencing hearing.
Aquilina allowed 158 survivors to speak during the hearing in January. She also made several comments expressing her disgust for the former doctor who molested hundreds of women.
"Our constitution doesn't allow for cruel and unusual punishment, and if it did, I have to say I might allow what he did to all of these beautiful souls, young women in their childhood, I would allow someone or many people to do to him what he did to others."
Upon handing down a sentence of 40-175 years in state prison, Judge Aquilina told Nassar she'd signed his death warrant.
During the motion hearing for a new sentence in August, the Michigan Attorney General's office argued those comments did not cross the line because established case law allows judges to convey the community's feelings.
Nassar's court-appointed appellate attorneys claimed Aquilina also shows bias after the sentencing through her comments on social media and in the press and by allowing herself to be photographed with some of the survivors. Aquilina denied the motion, leading to case moving up to the Michigan Court of Appeals.
The appeals process will take about 11 months to play out according to the Supreme Court of Michigan's public relations office. That includes 56 days for Nassar to file his formal arguments and 35 days for the state to reply.
The appeal will not affect Nassar's other two sentences. He's serving 60 years in federal prison on child pornography charges. If the 55-year-old lives to see the end of that sentence he will be brought back to Michigan to begin serving 40-125 years in state prison for molesting patients in Eaton County. That term will be served at the same time as his Ingham County sentence.
Nassar's court-appointed attorneys with the State Appellate Defender Office released praising the Court's decision:
"We are pleased that the cases have moved along to the next step toward an ultimate determination of whether the judges followed the law in imposing sentences in these cases. While no one should be above the law in our country it is also important for us to remember that no one should be beneath the law either. It is in the most difficult cases that we must be especially vigilant to ensure that the rule of law prevails. Defendants, victims and the public at large need to know the legal system is fair.."
By Jeff Proctor
