Court Opinion

ID: 9701048
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:00:09.301536+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:17.617981
License: Public Domain

Hammond, J.,
filed the following dissenting opinion, in which Hiínderson, J., concurred.
If the statute means what the majority find it to mean, *532Judge Henderson and I agree that the doctrine of double jeopardy is not applicable, because proceedings of the juvenile court are not criminal in nature and its dispositions are not punishment for crime. It was so held in People v. Silverstein (Cal. App.), 262 P. 2d 656, under a statute expressly providing that if a juvenile at any time after commitment by the juvenile authorities were found to be incorrigible or incapable of reformation, he could be returned for trial on the charge of the original crime.
Judge Henderson and I do not read the Montgomery County Act as the majority do. We think that it intends that the juvenile court, after full investigation, must either waive jurisdiction so that the child may be tried by the criminal court, or take and retain jurisdiction. Juvenile court statutes — the State wide Act, the Baltimore City Act and those throughout the country — have a common design that with the exception of grievous offenses, acts committed by a child that would otherwise be criminal are not to be so treated unless, after a full investigation, the juvenile court officially declares that they are to be. The statutes contemplate that in the great majority of cases the State will not seek to punish but rather to salvage the delinquent. In the accomplishment of this aim, the State extends to children whose acts otherwise would be criminal the same care and training as children who are merely neglected or destitute. The procedures used are civil inquiries and actions that look to treatment, reformation and rehabilitation. 41 Cornell Law Quarterly 147.
The Montgomery County Act, Code, 1957, Art. 26, Secs. 72-90, is in accord. It provides in Sec. 74 that one of its purposes is that “* * * when such child is removed from his own family, to secure for him custody, care, and discipline as nearly as possible equivalent to that which should have been given by his parents. This provision shall be liberally construed to accomplish the purposes herein sought.” Section 76 gives exclusive jurisdiction of. delinquent children to the Judge of the Juvenile Court of Montgomery County. Section 78 defines a delinquent child as one who “commits any act which, if committed by an adult would be a crime *533not punishable by death, or by life imprisonment; who is incorrigible * * * or is habitually a truant * * *.” Section 82 (b) provides that any child whose custody has been assumed by the court may be released in the custody of a parent or other person appointed by the court, or detained in a suitable place of detention, “pending the final disposition of the case.” Section 83 (a) provides that the court shall conduct all hearings informally and may adjourn the hearings from time to time. Section 83 (b) says that if the court finds that the child is a delinquent child, it may by order place the child on probation or in the custody of a relative or other fit person upon such terms as it makes, or commit the child to a public or licensed private institution or agency. Section 83 (e) provides that “in the case when a child 16 years of age or over is charged with an offense which would amount to a felony in the case of an adult, the judge, after full investigation, may waive jurisdiction and order such child held for trial under the regular procedure of the court which would have jurisdiction of such offense if committed by an adult.” Section 76 (h) directs that “When jurisdiction shall have been obtained by the court * * *, such child shall continue under the jurisdiction of the court until he becomes 21 years of age unless discharged prior thereto * * *.” (All emphasis supplied).
We think that the provisions of the statute make it plain that the judge is given ample power when a child is brought within the potential jurisdiction of the court to make a complete and full investigation which may continue for as long as is necessary to ascertain all the relevant facts, that there may be any number of hearings helpful for this accomplishment, and that when all the facts are available, the judge then must evaluate them and malee his decision as to whether the child is a delinquent over whom the court will assume and retain jurisdiction or whether he is a delinquent who should be tried and punished by the criminal court. The statute contemplates, in our view, that this decision is the “final disposition of the case” referred to in Sec. 82 (b) and it would seem to be, at least, analogous to res judicata and certainly would be the law of the case to and require, if the *534court takes jurisdiction, that “such child shall continue under the jurisdiction of the court until he becomes 21 years of age unless discharged prior thereto * * *,” as provided in Sec. 76 (h). We find nothing in the statute that contemplates loss of jurisdiction of a delinquent, once formally taken, except by “discharge”, and we see no indication that the waiver, that is to be made after full investigation, is considered as synonymous with discharge.
Section 87 provides that there may be an appeal to the circuit court from “any order or decree of the judge”, within thirty days of its entry. This would seem to confirm that the final disposition of the case by the juvenile court is either waiver or assumption of jurisdiction, although, once jurisdiction is obtained the court of course can make whatever appropriate custodial or discharge orders as changes in circumstances from time to time dictate.
The construction we take of the Act has been found by Pennsylvania Courts to be a correct construction. The Superior Court stated in the case of In re Holmes, 103 A. 2d 454, 458, that “Furthermore, ordinarily, when the juvenile court assumes jurisdiction, makes an adjudication of delinquency and commits a child, it could not certify the case to the court of quarter sessions for criminal prosecution based on the same violations of law. In re Trignani’s Case, 150 Pa. Super. 491, 494, 28 A. 2d 702.” The case was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania under the same name in 109 A. 2d 523, 526, where the Court noted that the juvenile court act provided that the judge might, if in his opinion the interest of the State required a prosecution, certify it to the District Court of the County for proceedings the same as if the jurisdiction of the juvenile court had never attached, and went on to say that “such a certification could not be made after the Juvenile Court had made an adjudication of delinquency nor, perhaps, after any self-incriminatory examination of the child.”
While the record does not so show, we are advised that neither in Baltimore City, where by far the largest number of juvenile cases arise, nor in Baltimore County, which also has a large number, have the respective juvenile courts ever *535waived in favor of the criminal courts after assuming jurisdiction of a child as a delinquent, although, at least in Baltimore City, there have been a number of requests that it be done.
The consequences permissible under the statute as the majority read it are such as to suggest strongly that the reading is wrong. The juvenile court could find a child, who had committed an act otherwise criminal, to be delinquent and assume jurisdiction and commit the child to the training school. Years later, if the child was thought to be “incorrigible” or a “truant”, the juvenile court could waive in favor of the criminal court so that he could be charged with the original criminal acts and tried and sentenced. Reformation and rehabilitation would not seem to be fostered by hanging over every juvenile delinquent committed for doing what would have been criminal, if done by an adult, a Damoclean Sword of ever-present threat of criminal prosecution, which would fall upon the doing of non-criminal acts far less serious than the original charges. We cannot ascribe to the Legislature an intent to permit such a result.
It is not difficult to see other objections to a construction which permits a waiver after juvenile court jurisdiction has been taken. The Act goes no further than to provide in Sec. 83 (e) that neither the disposition of the child nor any evidence given shall be admissible as evidence against him “in any case or proceeding in any other court.” Undoubtedly, the judges are careful not to permit a child to incriminate himself until a decision is made that he is a delinquent and jurisdiction is assumed. It must be equally true that after the court takes jurisdiction of the child as delinquent, he urges him to cooperate with the court and the probation officers and to reveal fully all that has gone on in the past in the hope that it might help the court in the work of rehabilitation. If, after these frank disclosures have been obtained, the court should decide that the court is going to waive in favor of the criminal court, there would appear to be no statutory reason why the statements made or the facts they establish could not be used in aid of the prosecution in the criminal court. If this were done, as a practical matter it would *536hamper, if not destroy, the ability of the probation workers to obtain the confidence and cooperation of many delinquent children, and certainly would be seriously detrimental to the work of rehabilitation.
We think that in the case before us the juvenile court was without power to send the boy to criminal court for trial and that the judgment and sentence appealed from should be reversed.