Assault with intent to do great bodily harm in Michigan is a felony under MCL 750.84, punishable by up to 10 years in state prison, a fine of up to $5,000, or both.1Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 750.84 – Assault with Intent to Do Great Bodily Harm Less Than Murder The statute reaches two different acts: assaulting someone with the specific intent to inflict a serious injury short of killing them, and assaulting someone by strangulation or suffocation. Either version carries the same maximum penalty, and the charge can be filed alongside any other crime arising from the same incident.
What Counts as Great Bodily Harm
Michigan courts treat “great bodily harm” as a serious physical injury well beyond minor cuts or bruises. Broken bones, internal organ damage, injuries that require surgery, and anything that significantly impairs a body function fit the definition. A black eye or a scraped knuckle does not. The injury has to be severe enough to meaningfully affect the victim’s health.
Intent is where this charge lives or dies at trial. The prosecution must show the defendant’s actual goal was to cause that level of serious injury. An accidental injury does not qualify, no matter how bad it turns out to be. Someone who shoves another person during an argument and accidentally breaks their wrist has not committed this offense if the aim was never to cause that harm.
Because no one can read minds, juries infer intent from what happened. The factors that carry the most weight are whether a weapon was used, how many blows landed and where, the severity of the injuries, threats made before or during the incident, and whether the defendant kept attacking after the victim was already down. Repeated kicks to the head of someone lying on the ground tell a different story than a single shove.
The Strangulation and Suffocation Version
The second path to this charge works differently. Assault by strangulation or suffocation means intentionally blocking someone’s breathing or blood circulation by applying pressure to the throat or neck, or by covering the nose or mouth.1Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 750.84 – Assault with Intent to Do Great Bodily Harm Less Than Murder
Here the prosecution does not have to prove any intent to cause serious injury. The deliberate physical act of choking or suffocating someone is treated as inherently dangerous, and the decision to do it supplies the seriousness on its own. That makes the strangulation variant substantially easier to prove than the great-bodily-harm variant, and it also cuts off defenses that depend on arguing about the level of harm intended.
What the Prosecution Has to Prove
For the great-bodily-harm version, two elements must be established beyond a reasonable doubt: that the defendant assaulted the victim, and that the defendant specifically intended to cause great bodily harm.1Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 750.84 – Assault with Intent to Do Great Bodily Harm Less Than Murder An “assault” here can be a completed physical attack or a threat or attempt to inflict harm when the defendant had the immediate ability to follow through. Physical contact is not required.
For the strangulation version, the prosecution must show the defendant assaulted the victim by intentionally impeding breathing or blood circulation through pressure on the throat or neck, or by blocking the nose or mouth.1Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 750.84 – Assault with Intent to Do Great Bodily Harm Less Than Murder No showing of intended injury level is required.
How Sentencing Actually Works
The 10-year maximum is a ceiling, not a prediction. Actual sentences depend on Michigan’s sentencing guidelines, which classify this offense as a Class D felony in the “Person” crime category. The judge calculates a recommended range using the seriousness of the offense and the defendant’s prior record, then uses that range as a starting point.
Since the Michigan Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in People v. Lockridge, the guidelines are advisory. A judge can depart from the calculated range without offering extraordinary justification.2Michigan Courts. State of Michigan Sentencing Guidelines Manual The guidelines range remains the single best predictor of the sentence you’ll actually receive, though. A first-time offender with a low score faces a very different conversation than someone with prior violent felonies. Probation is available and can carry conditions like counseling, community service, and regular reporting.
Consequences Beyond Prison and Fines
A conviction reaches well past the courthouse door.
- Federal law prohibits anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year from possessing firearms or ammunition. Because this offense carries a 10-year maximum, a conviction triggers a permanent federal firearms ban, and violating that ban is itself a separate federal felony.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
- The felony appears on background checks and can disqualify applicants from jobs, professional licenses, housing, and educational opportunities. Michigan employers and landlords regularly screen for violent felonies.
- The victim can sue for money damages in civil court regardless of what happens in the criminal case. The civil burden of proof is lower than beyond a reasonable doubt, so a victim can win a civil judgment even after a criminal acquittal.
Defenses That Apply to This Charge
Self-Defense
Michigan is a stand-your-ground state. Someone who is not committing a crime can use force without retreating if they honestly and reasonably believe the force is necessary to defend themselves or another person from an imminent unlawful attack. Deadly force is justified when a person honestly and reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent imminent death, great bodily harm, or sexual assault.4Michigan Legislature. Michigan Compiled Laws 780.972 – Use of Deadly Force by Individual Not Engaged in Commission of Crime; Conditions The word doing the work is “reasonable.” The finder of fact evaluates not just whether the defendant felt threatened, but whether a reasonable person in the same situation would have felt the same and used a similar level of force.
Lack of Intent
For the great-bodily-harm variant, arguing the defendant never intended a serious injury is probably the most common path to a reduced charge or acquittal. If a bar fight escalated fast and the defendant threw one punch that happened to break a jaw, the defense can argue the intent was to push the person away or cause minor harm, not to inflict the level of damage this statute targets. Failure to prove specific intent can drop the case to aggravated assault or another lesser offense.
Voluntary Intoxication
Because the great-bodily-harm version is a specific-intent crime, extreme intoxication can sometimes negate the required mental state. The argument is that the defendant was too impaired to form the specific intent to cause great bodily harm. It rarely produces a full acquittal, but it can lead to conviction on a lesser general-intent offense. It does not apply to the strangulation variant, which does not require proof of intended injury level.
Diminished Capacity
A defendant with a mental illness or cognitive impairment may argue they lacked the ability to form the specific intent. Unlike an insanity defense, this argument aims at conviction on a lesser charge rather than a not-guilty verdict. Michigan courts apply the doctrine narrowly.
Where This Charge Sits Among Michigan Assault Offenses
Michigan’s assault statutes work as a spectrum, and where a case lands depends on injury level, intent, and whether a weapon was involved.
Below this charge is aggravated assault, which covers a serious injury caused without a weapon and without intent to cause great bodily harm. It is a misdemeanor with a maximum of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.5Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code 750.81a – Assault; Infliction of Serious or Aggravated Injury The line between aggravated assault and the charge covered here is entirely about what the defendant was trying to do.
Felonious assault involves using a dangerous weapon to assault someone without intent to kill or cause great bodily harm. It carries up to four years in prison and a $2,000 fine.6Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 750.82 – Felonious Assault The weapon pushes it above aggravated assault, but the absence of intent to cause serious harm keeps it below MCL 750.84.
At the top of the spectrum is assault with intent to murder, which requires proof of an actual intent to kill and carries a potential life sentence.7Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 750.83 – Assault with Intent to Commit Murder The gap between intending serious harm and intending death is the dividing line, and prosecutors sometimes file the higher charge with an eye toward negotiating down.
Clearing the Conviction Later
Michigan’s expungement law classifies this offense as an “assaultive crime.” A person can petition to have up to two assaultive crime convictions set aside during their lifetime.8Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code MCL 780.621 – Setting Aside Conviction This conviction is not eligible for Michigan’s automatic expungement process. You have to file a petition with the court that entered the conviction.9State of Michigan. Michigan Clean Slate The felony waiting period runs from the later of the sentencing date or the completion of any prison term. Meeting the eligibility rules does not guarantee approval; a judge still has to grant the petition.