In the Matter of Buddy Lynn Whittington, Petitioner
| Citation | 20 L.Ed.2d 625,391 U.S. 341,88 S.Ct. 1507 |
| Decision Date | 20 May 1968 |
| Docket Number | No. 701,701 |
| Parties | In the Matter of Buddy Lynn WHITTINGTON, Petitioner |
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
Jack Supman and Daniel A. Rezneck, for petitioner.
E. Raymond Morehart, Lancaster, Ohio, and Merritt W. Green, Toledo, Ohio, for respondent.
Petitioner, who was 14 years old at the time, was adjudged a delinquent by the Juvenile Court of Fairfield County, Ohio, on September 7, 1966, on the basis of the trial judge's finding that there was 'probable cause' to believe that he had committed a crime that would be a felony if committed by an adult, namely, second-degree murder. Petitioner appealed to the Ohio Court of Appeals for Fairfield County, contending that the proceeding in the Juvenile Court which resulted in the order adjudicating him a delinquent violated his rights under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Specifically he argued that he had been determined to be a delinquent on the basis of an unconstitutionally low standard of proof, and that he had been denied his constitutional rights to trial by jury, to an impartial tribunal, and to bail pending disposition of the case against him; he also contended that his privilege against self-incrimination had been violated by the admission into evidence against him of statements made in response to questioning from police officers. The Ohio Court of Appeals rejected these contentions and affirmed the judgment of the Juvenile Court on January 3, 1967. 13 Ohio App.2d 11, 223 N.E.2d 333. On March 15, 1967, the Supreme Court of Ohio, sua sponte, dismissed petitioner's further appeal on the ground that it presented 'no substantial constitutional question.' Petitioner then filed a petition for certiorari in this Court, which we granted, 389 U.S. 819, 88 S.Ct. 112, 19 L.Ed.2d 69 (1967), raising the same issues presented in the Ohio courts.
Under Ohio law an adjudication that a child is a delinquent can have numerous substantial consequences. For example, once such a determination is made the Juvenile Court may place the child in a variety of state institutions or in a foster home. Ohio Rev. Code § 2151.35. Another alternative disposition in a case where the child has been found to have committed a felony is for the Juvenile Court to bind the child over to the Court of Common Pleas for trial under the criminal statutes applicable to adults. Ohio Rev. Code § 2151.26. * At the time the petition for certiorari was filed in this case on April 11, 1967, no disposition beyond the adjudication itself and ordering of a physical and mental examination of petitioner had been made by the Juvenile Court. We have since been informed by the parties that petitioner has been bound over for trial as an adult and that he has been indicted for the crime of first-degree murder.
The State argues vigorously that, because of the disposition subsequently made by the Juvenile Court, the proceeding at which the determination of delinquency was made was merely the equivalent of a probable cause hearing for an adult. Petitioner, on the other hand, asserts that his adjudication as a delinquent is final for purposes of appellate review and that substantial consequences of that decision continue despite the supervening transfer of jurisdiction over petitioner to the adult criminal courts. The resolution of this dispute is crucial to many of the issues presented by petitioner, since, for example, in ordinary probable cause hearings involving adults there is no right to either trial by jury or a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The unresolved question under Ohio law is not whether the adjudication of delinquency is a final, appealable order. The Ohio Court of Appeals considered that issue and ruled that the order is appealable, and the Ohio Supreme Court necessarily accepted this conclusion because its dismissal of the appeal was not based on the jurisdictional issue. The question which the Ohio courts have not settled is what, if any, effect the 'disposition' order, entered after their decisions on the appeal and after the petition for certiorari was filed here, has upon the prior delinquency determination made by the Juvenile Court.
On the constitutional issues, petitioner relies havily on In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1, 87 S.Ct. 1428, 18 L.Ed.2d 527, which was decided on May 15, 1967, some two months after the dismissal by the Ohio Supreme Court in this case. In Gault, this Court held squarely, for the first time, that various of the federal...
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Commonwealth v. Taylor
...the Fifth Amendment applies to juvenile proceedings. See Gault , 387 U.S. at 55, 87 S.Ct. 1428 ; In re Whittington , 391 U.S. 341, 344, 88 S.Ct. 1507, 20 L.Ed.2d 625 (1968) (per curiam ) ("[V]arious of the federal constitutional guarantees accompanying ordinary criminal proceedings were app......
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Kemplen v. State of Maryland
...as a constitutional decision requiring retroactive application). Note, also, the Supreme Court's comment in In re Whittington, 391 U.S. 341, 88 S.Ct. 1507, 20 L.Ed.2d 625 (1968): "Upon such remand, the Ohio court may, of course, also consider the impact, if any, on the questions raised by p......
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...in a civil or a criminal proceeding. See In re Gault, 1967, 387 U.S. 1, 87 S.Ct. 1428, 18 L.Ed.2d 527. Cf. In re Whittington, 1968, 391 U.S. 341, 88 S.Ct. 1507, 20 L.Ed.2d 625. While I am fully cognizant of the gravity of a juvenile's being declared delinquent, I feel that the important lib......
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...If the Supreme Court of the United States had wanted to change the Ohio standard of proof, it had ample opportunity, especially in the Whittington case (In re Whittington, 391 U.S. 341, 88 S.Ct. 1507, 20 L.Ed.2d 625), where the Ohio Juvenile Court Act was directly before it, and the Ohio Le......