Opinion ID: 705170
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Juvenile Transfer Hearing

Text: 15 Jarmal was almost eighteen years old at the time he committed the offenses at issue. On November 8, 1994, the government filed a motion in federal court to try him as an adult. Jarmal appeared in federal court for the first time on November 9, 1994, when the Federal Public Defender's Office was assigned to represent him. The next day, the court held a hearing on the government's motion to transfer Jarmal to adult jurisdiction. The public defender representing Jarmal, Elizabeth Manton, asked that the hearing be continued, arguing that she had not been allowed adequate time to prepare for the hearing. The district court denied the motion to continue and at the conclusion of the hearing, ordered that the case be transferred and Jarmal be tried as an adult. Jarmal contends that the district court violated his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel by holding his juvenile transfer hearing only one day after his first appearance in federal court. We review the district court's refusal to grant a continuance for abuse of discretion. United States v. Bakker, 925 F.2d 728, 735 (4th Cir.1991); United States v. LaRouche, 896 F.2d 815, 823 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 496 U.S. 927, 110 S.Ct. 2621, 110 L.Ed.2d 642 (1990) (In order to prove an abridgment of the sixth amendment right to effective assistance of counsel based on an allegedly wrongful denial of a continuance, a defendant must first demonstrate that the district court 'abused its discretion' in denying the motion.). Abuse of discretion has been defined in such circumstances as an unreasoning and arbitrary insistence upon expeditiousness in the face of a justifiable request for a delay. LaRouche, 896 F.2d at 823 (quoting Morris v. Slappy, 461 U.S. 1, 11-12, 103 S.Ct. 1610, 1616, 75 L.Ed.2d 610 (1983)). 16 The juvenile jurisdiction waiver hearing is a vitally important stage in the proceedings against a defendant. It is the point at which the defendant may assert diminished responsibility for an unlawful act due to youth. Kemplen v. State of Maryland, 428 F.2d 169, 175 (4th Cir.1970). Thus, the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel requires that a defendant have the opportunity to retain counsel for such proceedings, id., and the waiver proceedings are subject to the confines of due process, see Kent v. United States, 383 U.S. 541, 553, 86 S.Ct. 1045, 1053, 16 L.Ed.2d 84 (1966). 17 However, in order to gain a reversal of the district court's denial of a continuance, the defendant must show prejudice. Bakker, 925 F.2d at 735; LaRouche, 896 F.2d at 823. [I]n the absence of circumstances giving rise to a presumption that the defendant's case was prejudiced, the defendant must point to specific errors made by defense counsel that undermine confidence in the outcome of the trial. LaRouche, 896 F.2d at 823; see also Morris, 461 U.S. at 27, 103 S.Ct. at 1624 (Brennan, J., concurring) (Requiring ... a showing [of prejudice] to support ineffective-assistance claims may be appropriate because courts are able to assess an attorney's performance and the effect of that performance on a defendant's rights based on the records before them.). In Bakker, 925 F.2d 728, the defendant claimed that he was unable to assist in his defense due to psychological difficulties. After a psychiatric evaluation was complete and the parties agreed that the defendant was competent to stand trial and to aid in his defense, defense counsel requested a five-day continuance to reestablish his relationship with his client. The trial court denied the request and resumed the trial that same day. In finding that the district court did not abuse its discretion, we pointed out that Bakker had failed to show any way in which the denial of a continuance had prejudiced his case. Id. at 736. 18 Similarly, in LaRouche, we required that the defendants, in order to show prejudice due to the district court's denial of a continuance, allege specifically the way in which they were prejudiced. 896 F.2d at 825. Although the defendants claimed that they were not prepared for trial and that they could have gathered additional information had the continuance been granted, we ruled that their complaints were not sufficiently specific to require a reversal of the district court's order. We stated that the defendants were required to assert specific ways in which their defense could have been improved with the grant of a continuance; general allegations that the defense could have been better were not enough. Id.; see also United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648, 666, 104 S.Ct. 2039, 2050, 80 L.Ed.2d 657 (1984) (requiring a showing of counsel's specific errors to support an ineffective assistance claim based on inadequate time to prepare); United States v. Badwan, 624 F.2d 1228, 1231 (4th Cir.1980) (We must be reluctant to find arbitrariness in the exercise of trial court discretion based upon no more than post-hoc assertions by counsel that given more time something might have turned up.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1124, 101 S.Ct. 941, 67 L.Ed.2d 110 (1981). 19 In the instant case, Manton was appointed as Jarmal's counsel only one day before the transfer hearing. She stated to the court when she made her motion for a continuance that she had not had time to have a confidential interview with her client, and that her only contact with Jarmal had been a brief conversation in Jarmal's holding cell. She also informed the court that she had been able to speak to Jarmal's mother, who was present at the hearing, for only fifteen minutes. The only records Manton had in her possession were school records provided by the government, and she admitted that she knew nothing about Jarmal's background. 20 As the government concedes in its brief, [t]here is no doubt that the scheduling of the transfer hearing was abrupt. However, the defendant has made no assertions in his brief of ways in which his hearing would have been different had the continuance been granted. Under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 5032, the statute governing transfers of juveniles to adult jurisdiction, the trial court is required to make a finding on the record regarding: 21 the age and social background of the juvenile; the nature of the alleged offense; the extent and nature of the juvenile's prior delinquency record; the juvenile's present intellectual development and psychological maturity; the nature of past treatment efforts and the juvenile's response to such efforts; the availability of programs designed to treat the juvenile's behavioral problems. 22 18 U.S.C. Sec. 5032. The government presented extensive evidence regarding these factors at the transfer hearing, and the defendant does not contest on appeal the completeness or the accuracy of the information provided by the government. The defendant's most specific assertion of prejudice is that his counsel, after a brief interview in the holding cell, had serious questions regarding Jarmal's level of intellectual functioning.... However, that is the type of broad assertion that, without any showing of specific information that might have changed the result of the hearing, we have held does not suffice for a finding of prejudice sufficient to warrant a reversal. Because the defendant has not shown prejudice, we affirm the district court's decision to deny Jarmal a continuance of his juvenile transfer hearing.