Opinion ID: 350606
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Requirement of Indictment

Text: 55 The appellant contends that 18 U.S.C. § 5032 violates the Fifth Amendment by instructing the United States Attorney to proceed by information rather than indictment. He interprets the decision in United States v. Ramirez, 556 F.2d 909 (9th Cir. 1976), as raising the question of whether an indictment is necessary under the facts of this case. On rehearing, this court withdrew its opinion in Ramirez. United States v. Ramirez, 556 F.2d at 926. 56 The Supreme Court noted in McKeiver v. Pennsylvania, 403 U.S. 528, 91 S.Ct. 1976, 29 L.Ed.2d 647 (1971), that the rehabilitative purpose of juvenile delinquency proceedings obviates the requirement of the formalities of the criminal adjudicative system. 21 The Court held that the constitutional right to a trial by jury is not required in the adjudicative phase of state juvenile court delinquency proceedings. This court followed that reasoning in United States v. Salcido-Medina, 483 F.2d 162 (9th Cir. 1973), in which we cited McKeiver as authority for the holding that a juvenile delinquency proceeding under 18 U.S.C. § 5033, as it then read, was not intended to be a criminal trial and no jury was required. United States v. Salcido-Medina, 483 F.2d at 164. Three years later, this court held that 18 U.S.C. §§ 5032 and 5033, as amended, do not grant a juvenile being processed thereunder a statutory right to a jury trial. United States v. Martin-Plascencia, 532 F.2d 1316, 1318 (9th Cir. 1976). 57 Appellant would have this court eliminate the differences between criminal and juvenile proceedings, a tack the Supreme Court refused to take in McKeiver, and which this court has declined to pursue in Salcido-Medina and Martin-Plascencia. In light of the law developed on the issue of the right to a trial by jury in juvenile proceedings, we feel it is logical to apply the same reasoning to the issue of whether indictment is required in such a proceeding. We feel that it is not required, and find persuasive the reasoning of United States v. Hill, 538 F.2d 1072, 1076 (4th Cir. 1976). The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals propounded: 58 The statute, § 5032, provides that the proceeding shall proceed by information. Also, § 5031 provides that juvenile delinquency is a violation of law which would have been a crime if committed by an adult. Since the Fifth Amendment provision requiring grand jury indictment on its face applies only to a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, and since McKeiver, among other cases, has held that juvenile delinquency is not a crime, the Constitution on its face has no application to the claim of the defendant. See Kent v. United States, 383 U.S. 541, 555, 86 S.Ct. 1045, 16 L.Ed.2d 84; In Re Gault, 387 U.S. 1, 15, 87 S.Ct. 1428, 18 L.Ed.2d 527 (1967). While it is true Kent and Gault did not hold that a grand jury was not required in juvenile proceedings, those cases did recite that its absence or the absence of like formalities were within the intent of the various juvenile statutes. Since the defendant has not been charged with a crime, and since the intervention of a grand jury plays no part in the essential fairness of the proceeding so far as accurate fact finding is concerned, McKeiver, 403 U.S. at 543, 91 S.Ct. 1976 we are of opinion the statutory provision providing for proceeding by information rather than indictment is free from constitutional infirmity as to the claim of conflict with the Fifth Amendment. 59 This court likewise finds that it was proper for the United States Attorney to proceed by information under 18 U.S.C. § 5032 rather than by indictment. 60 AFFIRMED.