Attorney Alpert recently submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Judicial Court on behalf of the Youth Advocacy Division of the Committee for Public Counsel Services urging that a child’s first minor misdemeanor offense must always be dismissed. The legislature had clearly required this, creating this legislation based on data showing that any involvement with the criminal system increases a child’s chances of offending later on. But here, the government had charged a more serious offense, not just a minor misdemeanor. After a trial, the jury found that the child committed only a minor misdemeanor but the government still sought to have the child sentenced. The SJC agreed with the child and adopted the position advocated by Attorney Alpert and other amici: the minor misdemeanor must be dismissed after trial.
Prosecutors Cannot Manipulate Court Schedules to Punish Juveniles Longer
On April 11, 2022 Attorney Caroline Alpert convinced the Supreme Judicial Court to ban the prosecutorial practice of manipulating continuances past a juvenile’s eighteenth birthday for the sole purpose of obtaining more punishment. If a juvenile is sentenced while seventeen or younger, Massachusetts statutes prohibit punishing (“rehabilitating”) them beyond their eighteenth birthday. If sentenced after their eighteenth birthday, they can be committed to DYS until nineteen. Some Massachusetts prosecutors were moving to continue sentencing past the juvenile’s eighteenth birthday in order obtain longer commitments. The SJC prohibited this kind of manipulation, requiring prosecutors to prove by clear and convincing evidence at an evidentiary hearing that continued commitment is “necessary for the rehabilitation of the juvenile.” Read the opinion here.