juvie

As of 2007, nine states have granted juveniles the constitutional right to request a jury trial. Eleven more states will grant a jury trial under very narrow circumstances such as when juveniles may be subject to adult incarceration facilities, violent and serial offenders, as well as juveniles who seek appellate review of their disposition. That leaves thirty-one jurisdictions, including Maine, that have fallen into the shadow of the Supreme Court decision McKeiver v. Pennsylvania to not yet extend jury trials in juvenile court systems. But the landscape of juvenile courts looks much different today than it did forty-three years ago when McKeiver was decided. The juvenile system is no longer so distinct from its criminal counterpart; in fact, juvenile courts have developed many punitive practices that go against the idea of a purely rehabilitative focus. This paper will focus on the origins of the jury trial and the juvenile justice system, the constitutional arguments that render jury trials necessary in juvenile courts, policy arguments for the functioning of those jury trials, and how jury trials fit and thus should be included in the Maine Juvenile Code.

I. A Brief History of Right to Trial by Jury

The right to a trial by jury is one of the most fundamental concepts on which the American justice system rests. It had been in the English common law practice for several centuries and the American founders deemed in necessary to continue the practice and draft it into the United States Constitution. Prior to the Sixth Amendment, the Constitution guaranteed trial by jury for all crimes except impeachment. In 1968 the Supreme Court solidified this right in Duncan v. Louisiana stating that juries are a necessary check to g...

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...reading the above mentioned purposes of the code together, it is arguable that the code necessitates jury trials. If the court was to fully ensure juveniles’ rights when facing punitive consequences, then minors should have all the same rights as their counterparts in criminal court, including a jury trial.

VI. Conclusion

It is clear that if not under the Sixth Amendment, due process under the Fourteenth Amendment mandates jury trials in juvenile courts because the system has evolved to include punitive consequences. Since the focus is no longer purely rehabilitative, the juvenile courts closer match the criminal system, and thus McKeiver should no longer be relied upon. Jury trials are the next logical step in this development and they can be implemented by amending already expansive legislation in order to truly provide juveniles with all the rights due to them.