Jerry Gault Case Summary

The case involved Jerry Gault, who at 14 was given a seven-year sentence for a lewd phone call. The judge entered an order that Gerald was delinquent, mandating his incarceration in a residential facility until he turned 21. Arizona law prohibited appeal of juvenile cases.

If Gerald been an adult when he committed the offense alleged, the maximum punishment would have been a fine of $5 to $50, or imprisonment a two-month maximum jail term. Gault being a juvenile was not afforded the same rights as if he was an adult. Gault had not received the procedural protections afforded to adults charged with criminal behavior, limiting the possibility of the imposition of any sentence. Gault’s case was a landmark decision issued by the United States Supreme Court that ultimately established that under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a juvenile involved in a delinquency hearing must be afforded similar due process rights as is afforded to an adult. The Supreme Court handed down an wide-ranging opinion affirming

In their jurisdictional statement and brief in the Court, appellants do not urge upon all of the points passed upon by the Supreme Court of Arizona. They urge that we hold the Juvenile Code of Arizona invalid on its face or as applied in this case because,