About Justice Weaver

Throughout Justice Elizabeth "Betty" Weaver's over 32 years of experience as a trial and appellate judge (Probate/Juvenile, Court of Appeals, Supreme Court), including 2 years as Chief Justice, she has maintained a proven record based on these major practices:
Exercising Judicial Restraint
Applying Common Sense

A fundamental tenet of her stand for jusitice is to hold wrong-doers accountable and responsible for their actions, while providing opportunities for them to discover and develop their own self-worth and to become law-abiding, productive citizens.

In exercising judicial restraint (interpreting, not making, the law -- judicial self-discipline), Justice Weaver has followed the law as constitutionally passed by the legislature and consistent with the rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court. She has used the responsibility of interpretation, not as a sword to superimpose her own personal views (or those of special interest groups) on the law, but as a shield to protect the constitutional rights of the people and the constitutional acts of the legislative and executive branches.

Click here to read Michigan Court of Appeals Judge, Donald S. Owens’s Remarks as Presenter at the Induction of Justice Weaver into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame on October 25, 2005.

Click here to read Justice Weaver’s Remarks upon her Induction into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.

Press Release - 6/10/2005

Press Release - 1/13/2005

In November 2002, Justice Weaver won re-election for a second 8-year term on the Michigan Supreme Court.
This site provides information about her experience, credentials, principles, and major initiatives for the State of Michigan.

Check this site often for up-to-date press releases and other information about important work going on in the Supreme Court of Michigan.

A verdict for plain sense:  ruling in Kent case
Continued


Under the "necessarily included lesser offense" doctrine, juries are given a choice of convicting an individual on a related less serious charge. But that fails a test of ordinary common sense when the lesser charge doesn't match up with the evidence. In the Reese case, nobody disputed that the robber had a knife. So if Reese was guilty of anything, it had to be armed robbery. As Judge Kolenda indicated at the trial, to tell the jury otherwise would "have opened the door to compromise somewhere between guilty and not guilty." Besides confusing juries, watered-down convictions arising from such instructions baffle the public and undermine citizen respect for law and the courts. The Supreme Court's new requirement is that instructions on lesser offenses need be given only where a rational view of the evidence would support the lesser charge. The approach aligns Michigan's court rule with the standard used in federal criminal trials. It also conforms to what most Michigan citizens would consider to be ordinary logic.

Justice Weaver's opinion was joined by Chief Justice Maura Corrigan and Justices Clifford Taylor, Robert Young and Stephen Markman. Justices Marilyn Kelly and Michael Cavanagh disagreed, contending that the majority view "erodes the fact-finding powers of the jury," "rewards overcharging by the prosecution" and that "it departs from the precedent of this court." Indeed, the ruling does depart from precedent, but precedents that require that juries be given irrational instructions do nothing to advance justice.

The Reese case served as a reminder that some court-rule housecleaning was in order. The court has done a good job of it.

 

"What we in the judiciary most need is patience, meekness, compassion, and courage to 'Do Right and Fear Not.'"
Chief Justice Weaver
State of the Judiciary

"She is bringing a fresh, dedicated, incisive mind to the Michigan Supreme Court."
Judge Myron Wahls
Court of Appeals

"I know Betty Weaver. She threw me in jail....But I would vote for her, because she...straightened me out, and the sentence was just."
Former convicted juvenile offender

"Your judicial experience...was outstanding. Your leadership abilities...have been impressive. There is sound reasoning for my full confidence in you as a justice."
Mary S. Coleman
Chief Justice 1978-82

Judge Weaver has been recognized in many ways for her public service, including selection as one of five outstanding young women in Michigan by the Michigan Jaycees. It is a pleasure for myself to recognize Judge Weaver as a capable and devoted public servant.
G. Mennen Williams
Chief Justice 1982-86