Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Re: Felony or Misdemeanor

Michigan has several "delivery" statutes, and I don't know which one you were convicted of. I'll assume it was something like Delivery of Cocaine [MCL 333.7401(2)(a)(iv) .. a felony carrying a prison term of 1-20 years, up to $25,000 fine, or lifetime probation]. A conviction of "Attempted Delivery of Cocaine" would still be a felony.

An "Attempt" conviction of a 2 year or 4 year felony would be a 1-year misdemeanor or a 2-year "high court misdemeanor", respectively, via the Attempt statute, but your Delivery charge was more serious than that.

A person is rarely factually guilty of just "attempting" to commit a crime (i.e., you put the wheels in motion to commit the crime but stopped short of completing the crime). Most convictions of "Attempt" occur simply as a plea-bargain tool, because the "Attempt statute" results in the maximum incarceration time for the principal charge (in your case, Delivery) being cut in half. A prosecutor will offer "Attempt" as a plea bargain, and the defendant will see the deal in his reduced exposure to jail/prison time.

The ATF may be ignoring the "Attempt" label, recognizing what I just noted: 99% of Attempt convictions are plea bargains where the FACTS show that the person actually committed the principal offense. You should check with their rules or regulations to confirm that.

About the only area where I'd disagree with ATF is their assumption that all convictions in circuit court are felonies. That's where felonies are tried, but many people are convicted of true misdemeanors there via plea bargains or trial verdicts to lesser offenses.

Your subjective misunderstanding of whether this was a felony or misdemeanor --- or your attorney's mistake in advising you --- is irrelevant.

You should consult an attorney about trying to expunge your conviction. There arer some technical procedures that you have to follow, and this Attempt conviction must have been your only conviction for a misdemeanor or felony ... ever. If the conviction is expunged, you are deemed to never have been convicted of the offense (it's wiped off your record and you can check the "No" box on applications again).