People v. Stevens

Today, the majority fulfills the prophecy of the United States Supreme Court dissenting justices1 in United States v Mezzanatto,2 and renders illusory the protections of MRE 410.

In response to the decision in Mezzanatto,3 Justice Souter recognized the “slippery slope” the Court was creating and wrote:

The . . . consequence likely to emerge from today’s decision is the practical certainty that the waiver demanded will in time come to function as a waiver of trial itself. It is true that many (if not all) of the waiver forms now employed go only to admissibility for impeachment. But although the…