Juries for Juveniles

Date

2013

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Texas Tech Law Review

Abstract

Proposes a very different type of legislative reform for juvenile transfer: a legislatively created right to a jury trial on the issue of whether juveniles should be sentenced as juveniles or as adults. Part I will briefly sketch the outlines of my proposal. Part II will describe the prevailing political constraints on juvenile justice reform by describing the most salient features of recent moral panics about crime, in general, and juvenile crime in particular. Part III will explain the advantages of my proposal in responding to these constraints and a few possible objections. Part III will also briefly describe the ways in which such a practice might eventually lead to a constitutional right to such a jury trial at some point in the future.

Description

Keywords

Roper v. Simmons, Miller v. Alabama, Adult jurisdiction over juveniles, Juvenile justice reform, Idealism versus realism, Eighth Amendment limits on noncapital sentences for juveniles, Legislative reform for juvenile transfer, Political constraints on juvenile justice reform

Citation

Joseph E. Kennedy, Juries for Juveniles, 46 Tex. Tech L. Rev. 291 (2013-2014)