State v. Burnett
| Decision Date | 31 March 1920 |
| Docket Number | 89. |
| Citation | 102 S.E. 711,179 N.C. 735 |
| Parties | STATE v. BURNETT ET AL. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from Superior Court, Bertie County; Bond, Judge.
Lonnie Burnett and Ernest Burnett were indicted for murder. On motion to quash the bill. Bill quashed, defendants remanded to juvenile court, and the state appeals. Affirmed.
In view of the Juvenile Court Act, § 9, providing that where child of 14 years is charged with a felony in which the punishment cannot exceed 10 years the judge of the juvenile court may bind such child over to the superior court, a child under 14 years of age is no longer indictable as a criminal, but is in such case committed for reformation, and primarily to the juvenile department of the juvenile court.
Under Juvenile Court Act, children of 14 years and over, and in case of felonies in which the punishment may be more than 10 years, are in all cases subject to prosecution for crime as in the case of adults.
The bill of indictment, charging defendants in formal terms with the murder of Ludelle Hyman, deceased, contained on its face the averment that both of defendants were under 10 years of age, and it being admitted on the hearing that said defendants were under the age of 10, the court gave judgment that the bill be quashed, and defendants remanded to the juvenile court to be dealt with pursuant to law, being of opinion that, under the act of the General Assembly establishing said courts, children of that age are exempt from prosecution as criminals. The state, having duly excepted, appealed.
The Attorney General and Frank Nash, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
The General Assembly of 1919 passed an act entitled "An act to create juvenile courts in North Carolina," (chapter 97, Laws 1919), designed and intended in behalf of the state to take over the guardianship of delinquent and dependent children under the age of 16 years when they come within the descriptive specifications of the law, and it is established that the care and control of the parents, or others having present charge of such children, is inadequate and harmful and that the welfare of the child and the best interest of the state clearly require it. With this end in view, the statute in section 1 makes provision as follows:
"Section 1. The superior courts shall have exclusive original jurisdiction of any case of a child less than sixteen years of age residing in or being at this time within their respective districts--
(a) Who is delinquent or who violates any municipal or state law or ordinance or who is truant, unruly, wayward, or misdirected or who is disobedient to parents or beyond their control, or who is in danger of becoming so; or
(b) Who is neglected, or who engages in any occupation, calling, or exhibition, or is found in any place where a child is forbidden by law to be and for permitting which an adult may be punished by law, or who is in such condition or surroundings or is under such improper or insufficient guardianship or control as to endanger the morals, health or general welfare of such child; or
(c) Who is dependent upon public support or who is destitute homeless or abandoned, or whose custody is subject to controversy.
When jurisdiction has been obtained in the case of any child, unless a court order shall be issued to the contrary, or unless the child be committed to an institution supported and controlled by the state, it shall continue for the purposes of this act during the minority of the child. The duty shall be constant upon the court to give each child subject to its jurisdiction such oversight and control in the premises as will conduce to the welfare of such child and to the best interests of the state."
In section 2, and for the administration of the law in its principal features, juvenile courts, as a separate part of the superior court, are established in all the counties of the state, the office of judge of such court to be filled by the clerk of the superior court of their respective counties, and, in later sections, special provision is made for establishment of juvenile courts in cities of 10,000 inhabitants or more, and also in cities of 5,000, this last being in the discretion of the governing body of the town and where they are not county sites and have a recorder's court. In section 4 it is required that a full and complete record be kept of proceedings in each and every case, and this requirement and the effect of such proceedings and adjudications therein on the status of the child in reference to criminality, as well as the general purpose of the law and the spirit in which it is to be administered, are set forth as follows:
Section 5 and three subsequent sections contain general regulations as to procedure and requiring notices to parents or guardians or others having present control of the child under investigation; and in section 9 the course and scope of the inquiry at the hearing, and the disposition that may be made of cases under investigation, are stated as follows:
"Sec. 9. Upon the return of the summons or other process, or after any child has been taken into custody, at the time set for the hearing, the court shall proceed to hear and determine the case in a summary manner. The court may adjourn the hearing from time to time and inquire into the habits, surroundings, conditions and tendencies of the child so as to enable the court to render such order or judgment as shall best conserve the welfare of the child and carry out the objects of this act. In all cases the nature of the proceedings shall be explained to the child and to the parents or the guardian or person having the custody or the supervision of the child. At any stage of the case, the court may, in its discretion, appoint any suitable person to be the guardian ad litem of the child for the purposes of the proceeding. The court if satisfied that the child is in need of the care, protection or discipline of the state may so adjudicate and may find the child to be delinquent, neglected, or in need of more suitable guardianship. Thereupon the court may
(a) Place the child on probation subject to the conditions provided hereinafter; or
(b) Commit the child to the custody of a relative or other fit person of good moral character, subject, in the discretion of the court, to the supervision of a probation officer and the further orders of the court; or
(c) Commit the child to the custody of the State Board of Charities and Public Welfare, to be placed by such board in a suitable family home and supervise therein; or
(d) Commit the child to a suitable institution maintained by the state or any subdivision thereof, or to any suitable private institution, society or association incorporated under the laws of the state and approved by the State Board of Charities and Public Welfare authorized to care for children or to place them in suitable family homes; or
(e) Render such further judgment or make such further order of commitment as the court may be authorized by law to make in any given case.
(f) If a child of fourteen years of age be charged with a felony for which the punishment as now fixed by law cannot be more than ten years in prison his case shall be investigated by the probation officer and the judge of the juvenile court as provided for in this act, unless it appears to the judge of the juvenile court that the case should be brought to the attention of the judge of the superior court, in which case the child shall be held in custody or bound to the next term of the superior court as now provided by law."
In section 10 reference is again made to the disposition of the child in reference to its treatment, and it is enacted, among other things, that-- "No child coming within the provisions of this act shall be placed in any penal institution, jail, lock-up, or other place where such child can come into contact at any time or in any manner with any adult convicted of crime and committed or under arrest and charged with crime."
Ample provision is made also for care and supervision of the child pending its wardship by the court, through its designated officers; and, further, when a child has been committed to the custody of an institution not controlled by the state or to any association, society, or person, on petition of the parent, guardian, or next friend of the child, the case may be investigated, and such further orders and decrees made therein as the good of the child and the circumstances of the case may require.
It may be well to note that the exceptions appearing here as to children committed to a state institution refer...
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