State v. Orr

Darlell Orr was indicted as an adult at age 33 for a crime he allegedly committed when he was 13. After the Ohio Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s dismissal of the prosecution, concluding that it violated the due process and ex post facto clauses, the State appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Juvenile Law Center, in collaboration with the Office of the Ohio Public Defender and National Juvenile Defender Center filed an amicus brief in the Ohio Supreme Court in support of Mr. Orr. Our brief argued that the adult prosecution of a person who committed a crime as a juvenile but was apprehended after his 21st birthday is irreconcilable with Ohio’s commitment to protecting young children in the justice system.

After the case was fully briefed and argued, the Ohio Supreme Court issued an opinion dismissing the case, sua sponte (of its own accord), as having been improvidently accepted.