Legal Docket

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81 - 90 of 381 resultsReset
Keeping Kids in the Community

Commonwealth v. A Juvenile

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court •
Our amicus brief argued that the sentence for contempt of court ignored A Juvenile's status as a child, and that both the sentence and underlying bail order showed racial, gender, and dependency status bias.
Juvenile Life Without Parole (JLWOP)

People v. House

Illinois Supreme Court •
Amici argued that the mandatory imposition of life without parole on emerging adults violates the Eighth Amendment and the Illinois Constitution. We argued that emerging adults possess the same developmental characteristics of youth that were relied upon in Roper and its progeny, and are thus less deserving of the harshest punishments. Our brief also emphasized the growing statewide, national, and international consensus that the line between childhood and adulthood should be set above 18. 
Youth Tried as Adults

Commonwealth v. Concepcion

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court •
We argued that both the mandatory transfer into adult court and the imposition of a mandatory life sentence on a juvenile violate due process and the Eighth Amendment by precluding any analysis of the mitigating characteristics of youth, as required by Miller. Our brief further argued that mandatory statutory schemes create the risk of a disparate effect on youth of color.
Juvenile Life Without Parole (JLWOP)

Commonwealth v. Cobbs

Pennsylvania Supreme Court •
Juvenile Law Center joined the Montgomery County Office of the Public Defender as co-counsel for James in his appeal to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania challenging James's Assault by Life Prisoner sentence as unconstitutional because the underlying predicate sentence was unconstitutional.
Juvenile Life Without Parole (JLWOP)

In re Brooks

Washington Supreme Court •
Amici argued that Mr. Brooks’s 90-year minimum de facto life sentence is disproportionate and unconstitutional under the both the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article I, Section 14 of the Washington Constitution and must be considered in the context of severe race disproportionality among those serving lengthy sentences and life sentences.
Keeping Kids in the Community

Fulton v. City of Philadelphia

U.S. Supreme Court •
Our brief argued that discriminating against prospective foster parents on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity harms children and diminishes their ability to achieve permanency.
Youth Interrogations & Access to Counsel

People v. Ross

Michigan Supreme Court •
We argued that the right to counsel for youth is secured under the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of fundamental fairness in juvenile proceedings. We further argued that fundamental fairness requires: (1) an exacting standard for the effective representation of counsel that accounts for the developmental status of youth, (2) diligent youth-centered representation, and (3) a rebuttable presumption of prejudice. By contrast, under the Sixth Amendment’s Strickland standard the requirement that criminal defendants prove prejudice creates an unduly heavy burden for youthful defendants.
Youth Interrogations & Access to Counsel

State v. D.L.

Washington Supreme Court •
We argued that the Fourteenth Amendment due process guarantees requires juvenile offenders receive notice of the aggravating factors a court may rely on to impose a manifest injustice sentence before the entry of a guilty plea or agreeing to a deferred disposition.
Youth Interrogations & Access to Counsel

State v. M.S.

Washington Supreme Court •
Sixteen-year-old M.S. agreed to a deferred believing he was subject to a standard range sentence. Subsequently, under Washington’s Manifest Injustice provision of the Juvenile Code, the court imposed a longer sentence on M.S. based on aggravating factors that are not identified in Washington’s Juvenile Justice Act and that he had no notice of at the time he made his agreement. M.S.’s sentence was twelve times longer than the maximum standard range.
Youth Interrogations & Access to Counsel

In re P.G.F.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court •
We argued that the legal interests at stake in termination proceedings are distinct from the child’s custodial preferences and that counsel for a child’s legal interest in a TPR hearing must advise the child in an age-appropriate manner, and must ascertain and advocate for that child’s preferred outcome in the termination petition.