Opinion ID: 1984096
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Eldridge Factors in a Juvenile Bind-Over Proceeding

Text: As used in assessing the Eldridge factors, the risk of error resulting from a proceeding is not the statistical probability of the occurrence of judicial error but the seriousness of the consequences of judicial error. The risk of error in a given legal process is a function of the nature of the defendant's interests and the permanency of their threatened loss under that procedure. Santosky v. Kramer, 455 U.S. at 758, 102 S.Ct. at 1397. A jurisdictional transfer does not involve final adjudication of rights. State v. Riccio, 130 N.H. 376, 540 A.2d 1239, 1241 (1988). Bind-over for trial as an adult does not of itself put a juvenile defendant's liberty at risk nor deny the juvenile the opportunity for rehabilitation nor impose a sentence or lengthen a sentence. A bind-over order does not foreclose the juvenile defendant's other interests but merely designates the further legal process by which the juvenile's rights will be addressed. In an erroneous bindover for trial as an adult the risk to a juvenile accused of a serious crime is exposure to adult punishment. A juvenile offender charged with a serious crime does not risk loss of confidentiality in being bound over for trial as an adult because no confidentiality is afforded a juvenile accused of a class A, B, or C crime. 15 M.R.S.A. § 3307 (1980 & Supp. 1994). A juvenile defendant, however, unlike an adult defendant, enjoys the protection of the preponderance of the evidence requirement before being exposed to a trial as an adult and the potential for adult sentencing. An adult is exposed to a trial and to the potential for adult sentencing at the lesser standard of proof required to establish probable cause. Because a transfer to the Superior Court itself places no compelling or fundamental right of the juvenile at risk, other than exposure to the potential for a longer sentence, the juvenile's interest in a trial as a juvenile does not outweigh the State's vital interest in controlling serious crime by treating a juvenile as an adult when it is found there is probable cause that the juvenile has committed an adult crime. The Eldridge doctrine requires of the juvenile bind-over proceeding no more by way of proof than the preponderance of the evidence standard the Legislature already has attached to it by statute.