Court Opinion

ID: 9709548
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:50:42.336355+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:50.012353
License: Public Domain

DeBRULER, Justice,
dissenting.
The majority opinion accepts as it must that an order of the juvenile court waiving jurisdiction and transferring a case to the adult criminal court is an appealable one. Ind.Code § 31 — 5—7—22 so provides:
*682“An appeal may be taken in juvenile cases from any final order or judgment of the juvenile court in the manner provided by law for appeals in criminal cases from circuit or criminal court.”1
This statute is clear and unambiguous. First, it embodies the conclusion that a waiver order is a final order and that a juvenile has an interest in being kept within the juvenile system which is of sufficient nature to be cognizable in an appeal. Second, it represents that the competing interests of the State and the juvenile have been weighed and balanced and the conclusion reached that procedural protections and appeal rights be extended to the juvenile who is waived to adult criminal court on the same basis and to the same extent as they are extended to those who are convicted of a crime and sentenced in the adult criminal court. It is inescapable that the accused upon conviction in adult criminal court is entitled to an immediate appeal, and, therefore, it is likewise inescapable that the juvenile, by reason of this statute, upon being subjected to waiver is entitled to an immediate appeal. Moreover, to relegate the juvenile to an appeal of the waiver order after conviction or acquittal is to stultify the right to appeal promised in the statute. At that late point in time, after a public trial or hearing, injury and prejudice to the juvenile from a wrongful waiver is irreparable. The right to appeal was granted by the statute to prevent that result. And finally, I believe that there is sufficient resilience in our court system and its officers at all levels to carry out the legislative program envisioned in the governing statute quoted above.
I would therefore grant the writ.

. This provision has been retained in Ind.Code § 31-&-7-17 to become effective October 1, 1979, as follows:
“Appeals may be taken from any final order of the court under the Indiana Rules of Trial Procedure, the Indiana Rules of Criminal Procedure, or the Indiana Rules of Appellate Procedure.”