Court Opinion

ID: 9665273
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:43:53.224032+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:14.349039
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(concurring).
In this case, the defendant would have the highest Court of this state hold that he is exempt from the prosecution of crimes which he committed as an adult simply because he committed other crimes before he obtained the age of eighteen. This cannot be. A legal antinomy * would be created if juveniles, who have committed crimes in the past and who are under jurisdiction of the juvenile division of the circuit court, were exempt from adult court prosecution because they had a prior criminal history. When as a child, he is to be treated as a child. When as an adult, he is to be treated as an adult. This defendant was an adult, at the age of eighteen, when he committed these offenses. A person becomes an adult in South Dakota at the age of eighteen. SDCL 26-1-1.

 An antinomy, in philosophical use, is a contradiction between two laws, principles, or conclusions; the term is applicable to one concept or thing which contradicts another concept or thing and is irreconcilable with it; "paradox” and “anomaly" are not true synonyms of “antin-omy,” but all three express or reveal an inherent contradiction and are not always clearly distinguished or used.