Court Opinion

ID: 9468468
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:15:36.822542+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:52.865549
License: Public Domain

MERRITT, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in Part II of the Court’s opinion, but not in that portion of Part I that would allow a youth offender to be sentenced under the Youth Corrections Act for a period exceeding six months without according him the right to a jury trial. The Court reasons apparently that since the purpose of a sentence under the Youth Corrections Act is rehabilitation rather than retribution or deterrence the constitutional provision requiring a jury trial does not apply — even when the youth is sentenced to six years in prison. I disagree with this reasoning because I believe that, whatever the label or euphemism given to describe the imprisonment, the constitutional provisions granting the right of trial by jury in criminal cases applies whenever the sentence may exceed six months. Passing fashion and jargon in penology, or the fact that a judge thinks that he is sending a defendant to jail for his own good, do not alter the right to a jury trial.