{"id":41,"date":"2026-09-03T09:42:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T13:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baronedefensefirm.lawblogger.net\/blog\/?p=41"},"modified":"2026-09-06T14:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T18:03:07","slug":"in-michigan-dui-causing-death-case-victims-intoxication-probably-not-relevant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/in-michigan-dui-causing-death-case-victims-intoxication-probably-not-relevant\/","title":{"rendered":"When Can a Victim\u2019s Intoxication Matter in a Michigan DUI Causing Death Case?"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"bdf-blog-post\" style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.68; color: #1f2933; max-width: 920px; margin: 0 auto;\">\n<section style=\"background: #f8fafc; border-left: 6px solid #8b1e1e; padding: 20px 24px; margin: 28px 0; box-shadow: 0 2px 10px rgba(0,0,0,.05);\">\n<h2 style=\"font-size: 22px; margin-top: 0; color: #111827;\">Short Answer<\/h2>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0;\">Victim intoxication can be relevant in a Michigan DUI causing death case, but not simply because alcohol, marijuana, or another drug was found in the victim&#8217;s system. The important question is whether the victim&#8217;s intoxication, considered together with the victim&#8217;s conduct and the other circumstances of the collision, tends to show gross negligence that could affect proximate causation. The Michigan Supreme Court&#8217;s 2026 decision in <em>People v Morgan<\/em> makes clear that courts should not evaluate intoxication, speed, acceleration, reaction time, and other relevant conduct in separate silos.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>Victim intoxication can become an important issue in a Michigan DUI causing death prosecution when alcohol or drug evidence bears on the victim&#8217;s conduct and the causation analysis. But the legal significance of that evidence is more complicated than simply asking whether the victim was intoxicated or even by learning how intoxicated they were.<br \/>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/in-michigan-dui-causing-death-case-victims-intoxication-probably-not-relevant\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading When Can a Victim\u2019s Intoxication Matter in a Michigan DUI Causing Death Case?\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victim intoxication can matter in a Michigan DUI causing death case when alcohol or drug evidence helps explain conduct relevant to gross negligence and proximate cause. The Michigan Supreme Court&#8217;s 2026 Morgan decision substantially clarifies the rule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8,27],"tags":[255,234,193,178,254,239,236,253],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dui-defense","category-dui-enforcement","category-owi","tag-accident-reconstruction","tag-dui-causing-death","tag-dui-defense","tag-michigan-dui","tag-people-v-feezel","tag-people-v-morgan","tag-proximate-cause","tag-victim-intoxication"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Victim Intoxication in Michigan DUI Causing Death Cases<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Victim intoxication may affect proximate cause in a Michigan DUI causing death case. Learn how Feezel, Baase, and Morgan apply.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/in-michigan-dui-causing-death-case-victims-intoxication-probably-not-relevant\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Victim Intoxication in Michigan DUI Causing Death Cases\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Victim intoxication may affect proximate cause in a Michigan DUI causing death case. Learn how Feezel, Baase, and Morgan apply.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/collision-reconstruction-or-roadway-analysis-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Patrick Barone\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"17 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Victim Intoxication in Michigan DUI Causing Death Cases","description":"Victim intoxication may affect proximate cause in a Michigan DUI causing death case. 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Learn how Feezel, Baase, and Morgan apply.","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/collision-reconstruction-or-roadway-analysis-scaled.jpg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Patrick Barone","Est. reading time":"17 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/in-michigan-dui-causing-death-case-victims-intoxication-probably-not-relevant\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/in-michigan-dui-causing-death-case-victims-intoxication-probably-not-relevant\/"},"author":{"name":"Patrick Barone","@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/da00f897e195cfccca02fe556b53136f"},"headline":"When Can a Victim\u2019s Intoxication Matter in a Michigan DUI Causing Death Case?","datePublished":"2026-09-03T13:42:41+00:00","dateModified":"2026-09-06T18:03:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/in-michigan-dui-causing-death-case-victims-intoxication-probably-not-relevant\/"},"wordCount":3729,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/in-michigan-dui-causing-death-case-victims-intoxication-probably-not-relevant\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/collision-reconstruction-or-roadway-analysis-300x158.jpg","keywords":["accident reconstruction","DUI causing death","DUI Defense","Michigan DUI","People v Feezel","People v. Morgan","proximate cause","victim intoxication"],"articleSection":["DUI Defense","DUI Enforcement","OWI"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/in-michigan-dui-causing-death-case-victims-intoxication-probably-not-relevant\/","url":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/in-michigan-dui-causing-death-case-victims-intoxication-probably-not-relevant\/","name":"Victim Intoxication in Michigan DUI Causing Death Cases","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/in-michigan-dui-causing-death-case-victims-intoxication-probably-not-relevant\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/in-michigan-dui-causing-death-case-victims-intoxication-probably-not-relevant\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/collision-reconstruction-or-roadway-analysis-300x158.jpg","datePublished":"2026-09-03T13:42:41+00:00","dateModified":"2026-09-06T18:03:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.baronedefensefirm.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/da00f897e195cfccca02fe556b53136f"},"description":"Victim intoxication may affect proximate cause in a Michigan DUI causing death case. 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