Court Opinion

ID: 9545349
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:10:27.618763+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:14:33.341118
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
dissenting.
In re Doe, 98 Idaho 40, 557 P.2d 634, was this Court’s first authoritative construction of I.C. § 16-1819. Doe was not announced until December 17, 1976. Harwood’s hearing on “waiver” or “relinquishment” of juvenile court authority took place some three months prior to Doe. Without the authoritative construction this Court made in Doe, I.C. § 16-1819 did not clearly require either that an appeal need be taken, or the right thus abandoned, or that an appeal even could be taken from a “waiver” order. In fact, the State in Doe argued that Doe’s appeal to the district court was properly dismissed “because the magistrate’s order was not a final judgment.” This Court held otherwise, but noted that all orders in magistrate court affecting juveniles might not sufficiently affect a child so as to give rise to the right or obligation of an appeal.
Similarly, while the Court’s opinion in this case involving Harwood does correctly state the rule announced in California, People v. Chi Ko Wong, 18 Cal.3d 698, 135 Cal.Rptr. 392, 557 P.2d 976 (1976), Harwood’s hearing also predated that case, Wong being announced only 6 days after this Court announced Doe. Moreover, the rule of Wong was not applied in Wong’s case:
Defendant in the instant case has failed to avail himself of the timely remedy available. As indicated earlier, however, the reported cases provide conflicting directions as to the proper manner in which and time at which a challenge to a certification order should be asserted. For that reason the rule announced herein will be applied only prospectively to criminal prosecutions commenced after the finality of our opinion herein, and we will consider on the merits the instant claim that the certification order is defective. (Emphasis added.) 135 Cal.Rptr. at 403, 557 P.2d at 987.
The California Supreme Court then proceeds to thoroughly discuss the merits of the issues raised by Wong on his appeal. I submit that this Court is obligated to do the same. Because it does not do so, it does not meet or discuss at all the serious contentions raised on the appeal.
Nor am I able to join in the application of the well-worn cliche that a sentence within statutory limits is not an abuse of discretion. As the Court notes, this 17 year old boy was handed the maximum, 5 years in the penitentiary. Anything beyond 5 years would have been unlawful; hence I am unable to see where discretion even appeared on the scene. How Harwood, on his first adult offense, benefits or does society itself benefit by his being so incarcerated in the penitentiary for 5 years is something which escapes me.
Even assuming that juvenile procedures had theretofore failed to help him find himself, and conceding that the public is entitled to some respite from his taking ways, I submit that a commutation of his sentence to county jail time was highly in order. It would be interesting to know now how well he has fared at the State Penitentiary.