Patrick Hoover Heads Juvenile Justice Panel at National Judge's Conference
Titled “Juvenile Waivers to Adult Courts: New Issues, Growing Concerns and Potential Solutions”, the four presenters shared the latest findings on juvenile waivers, increased recidivism and unintended injury to juveniles prosecuted as adults to a nationwide group of judges and other juvenile justice professionals.
Criminal justice professor Marty Floss from Hilbert College spoke about the juvenile waiver experience; its historical underpinnings, evolution and its documented negative effects on both target youth and on the many professionals who work in this challenging field. In short, Professor Floss described how over a decade of research gives validity to the conclusion that juvenile waivers to adult courts create more crime.
Dr. Vincent Culotta from Neurobehavioral Associates Inc. of Columbia, MD presented the latest neurological research on brain development of early to late adolescents, and related the research to legal issues underlying a youth’s capacity to appreciate the consequences of delinquent activity. Dr. Culotta also described the degree to which a juvenile may or may not have any real insight in the context of serious teen misconduct and whether a juvenile in any real sense is properly and legally considered mature and aware for purposes of trying youth in adult court.
The Honorable Kim Berkeley Clark, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, 5th Judicial District, PA, shared her unique perspective as sitting judge in a very active Pittsburgh court handling juveniles confronted with every imaginable issue, including that of juvenile waiver. Judge Clark, as a long time member of the Pennsylvania judicial study group tasked with considering question of decertification, or juvenile waivers, described the issues and addressed the legal concerns involving whether to waive a juvenile to adult court.
Finally, Patrick Hoover of HooverLaw Offices in Rockville, MD gave the audience a sample of his experience litigating juvenile waiver and the very specialized issues that are brought to the court when defending kids charged as adults. Hoover shared his observations and insider perspective and offered tactics and stratagies, available to to all parties – judges, counsel, and juvenile justice professionals – when confronted with the question of juveniles in an adult criminal prosecution. He emphasized the import and legal significance of brain development research, and the empirical evidence now available demonstrating legal incompetence in much of the juvenile population which may be faced with having to defend charges in the adult criminal court system.
Patrick Hoover also created a website for conference attendees and others who may be interested in learning more about the topic of juvenile waiver. The website, located here and available to the public: http://sites.google.com/a/hooverlaw.com/juvenile-waivers/Home, contains all of the presentation materials used by the presenters, and pdf’s of current research articles, news and other sources referenced by or directly used for presentation at the 2009 conference.
If you have any questions or comments, please contact Patrick Hoover at phoover@hooverlaw.com.
