Posts in 'Amicus Curiae'

Argued that Petitioner Bunch's sentence is unconstitutional pursuant to the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Graham v. Florida, which held that juvenile offenders cannot be sentenced to life without parole without a meaningful and realistic opportunity to re-enter society prior to the expiration of their sentences for non-homicide offenses.

Argued that a life without parole sentence for felony murder violates the United States Constitution as well as international law.

Argued that a court should not consider an individual's juvenile record when deciding whether to impose the death penalty on him or her as an adult.

Juvenile Law Center's brief, filed in the United States Supreme Court, argued to affirm the Ninth Circuit's decision that the 4th Amendment warrant/probable cause protections applied to a nine-year-old girl due to law enforcement involvement in her seizure and questioning at school.

Argued that juvenile adjudications should not be used to enhance adult sentences, since in juvenile court there is no jury, the culture is non-adversarial, defense attorneys are often overburdened and poorly resourced, unreliable evidence is often used, and appellate rights are either nonexistent or underutilized.

These briefs involved a thirteen-year-old student who was questioned by four adults, including a uniformed police officer, on school grounds regarding a series of break-ins. Juvenile Law Center argued that the student should have been considered in custody for Miranda purposes.

This brief to the Connecticut Supreme Court dealt with a Connecticut statute that allows a prosecutor to choose the forum in which youthful offenders are tried. Amici argued that this statute deprived youthful offenders of their right to due process by placing sole discretion to waive in the hands of the prosecutor.

This brief to the Connecticut Supreme Court dealt with a Connecticut statute governing transfer of juveniles to adult court. Amici argued that the statute, which gave the prosecutor sole discretion to transfer a juvenile's case to the adult criminal system, deprived juveniles of their right to due process.

Challenged the zero-tolerance approach in the delinquency adjudication of an eighth-grade student whose creative writing assignment invoked an unhappy student who cut off his teacher’s head when she told him to shut up.

Briefed the issues of constitutionality and racial disparity in the application of a statute allowing prosecutors discretion to file charges against minors directly in criminal court without a prior adjudication of a minor’s lack of fitness for juvenile disposition.