Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/tag/juvenile-defense/)
Nikolas Cruz was the rare mass killer in America to have his fate decided at trial; many die during the shooting. Cruz’s defense team said they dug into his troubled life and convinced a jury to spare him the death penalty.
Since 2020 juveniles were defended by court-appointed lawyers who lacked state-mandated qualifications. How will juveniles get the qualified legal defense they deserve?
Lawmakers in the Georgia House voted Monday to raise the age limit to 17 for prosecuting young defendants in juvenile court. House Bill 462 was approved on a vote of 145-22, sending it to the state Senate for further debate.
Everyone deserves access to justice. Eight years ago, I took a chance that the community would show up to support legal services – and justice – for vulnerable kids and young adults.
I’ll never forget the first client who walked through our doors or any of the clients I’ve represented. As I step down from leading Arizona Legal Women and Youth Services (ALWAYS) and turn the reins over to a brilliant successor, I can’t help but reflect on all that I’ve learned, felt, and hoped during my time running a legal aid center. At ALWAYS, we serve human trafficking survivors and children and young adults affected by homelessness, abuse, and the foster care system. With the exception of trafficking survivors, everyone we serve is 24 years old or younger.
Marcos Barbery, who works for Orleans Public Defenders, was one of about a dozen juvenile advocates who spoke about a local campaign to keep criminal suspects as young as 14 out of one of the most dangerous jails in the country.
A small shift in my practice has parallels outside the courtroom as well, as a renewed commitment to advocacy by those who work with youth in other settings can also make a difference.
For the first time, the U.S. Department of Justice has intervened in a state lawsuit alleging juvenile defendants have been routinely denied adequate representation.
“They can’t do that!”
This quickly became my mantra when I started as a juvenile defender nearly a year ago. My colleagues heard it so often they joked about recording me and just playing it back while I was observing court proceedings so that I wouldn’t have to speak. Unfamiliar with the differences between how the criminal justice system treats juvenile and adult offenders, I was clearly unprepared for some of the things I witnessed when I first arrived in juvenile court. You see, juvenile courts are quasi-criminal, meaning many of the aspects I expected to see in a criminal court are present, but the result of juvenile delinquency proceedings is supposed to be more rehabilitative than punitive, and “in the best interest of the child.”
What I learned this to mean is that prosecutors, judges, and a state’s department of juvenile justice have much more latitude to make recommendations for a child’s “best interests.” Because of this latitude, I have actually heard a judge say, “Don’t even think about requesting bond until you tell us where the weapon is,” at a detention hearing. What happened to the presumption of innocence, or the right to avoid self-incrimination?