U.S. v. Juvenile Male No. 1

• Decision Date: 11 June 1996
• Docket Number: No. 96-4212,96-4212
• Citation: 86 F.3d 1314
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. JUVENILE MALE # 1, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 1314

86 F.3d 1314

65 USLW 2079

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. JUVENILE MALE # 1, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 96-4212.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued May 6, 1996.

Decided June 11, 1996.

ARGUED: Charles Linwood Morgan, Jr., Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellant. Kenneth Davis Bell, First Assistant United States Attorney, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Mark T. Calloway, United States Attorney, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellee.

Before WILKINSON, Chief Judge, and HALL and MICHAEL, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed and remanded by published opinion. Judge HALL wrote the majority opinion, in which Judge MICHAEL joined. Chief Judge WILKINSON wrote an opinion concurring in the judgment.

OPINION

K.K. HALL, Circuit Judge:

Juvenile # 1, ¹ who was initially charged in federal court with committing acts of juvenile delinquency, appeals the order transferring his case to adult status. We affirm and remand for further proceedings.

I

On September 18, 1995, Juvenile # 1 was charged in a juvenile information with the following acts of delinquency: unlawfully taking by violence a motor vehicle shipped in interstate commerce (carjacking), in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2119, and conspiring to violate the carjacking statute, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371; carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1), and conspiracy to violate the same statute; causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 924(i) and 2; possession of a handgun by a person under the age of eighteen, a misdemeanor, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(x); and hindering the apprehension of an offender, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 3. On the same date, the government certified to the court that six of the seven counts involved crimes of violence and that "there exists as to all counts a substantial federal interest warranting the exercise of federal jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 5032." The government also moved for the transfer of Juvenile # 1 to the appropriate district court for prosecution as an adult.

The following story emerged at the transfer hearing. On June 11, 1995, Juvenile # 1 and a twenty-one year old, Darius Bennett, stole a car from a Charlotte parking lot. At the time, Juvenile # 1 had a .380 handgun and Bennett had a 12-gauge pistol grip shotgun. They then met two other juveniles and another adult, and the five discussed robbing someone. The group drove in the stolen car to the Hilton hotel and waited in the parking lot. As a car drove in and parked, Juvenile # 1 remarked, "There go two white women, let's jack [rob] them." Juvenile # 1 and Bennett, each with his gun, approached the women's car. Juvenile # 1 went to the driver's side and told the driver, Alisa Reasor, to give him the keys; she complied. As Bennett approached the passenger side, Patricia Jones started to run, and Bennett shot her in the back at close range and killed her. Reasor escaped and hid while the two stolen cars pulled away. Juvenile # 1 drove the women's car.

The women's car was found abandoned seven miles out of town. Phone calls had been made from the women's cellular phone; one call was to Juvenile # 1's hometown in Massachusetts. The group went to a cookout at a friend's house that evening, and two empty bottles of the souvenir wine that the women had bought that day were found in a nearby dumpster. Juvenile # 1 took a cab home that night. The cabby gave a statement that Juvenile # 1 said that he and his friend had stolen a car and that his friend "got stupid and shot at a woman."

The district court ordered that Juvenile # 1 be transferred to adult status. ² In this appeal, he contends that his case should not be in federal court at all, and, even if it should, that he should not be prosecuted as an adult. We turn first to the issue of the court's subject matter jurisdiction.

II

The violation of a federal criminal law by a person under the age of eighteen is deemed an act of juvenile delinquency. 18 U.S.C. § 5031. There are, however, restrictions on the exercise of federal jurisdiction over juveniles. A juvenile accused of delinquency shall not be proceeded against in federal court

unless the Attorney General, after investigation, certifies to the appropriate district court that ... (1) the juvenile court or other appropriate court of a State does not have jurisdiction or refuses to assume jurisdiction over said juvenile with respect to such alleged act of juvenile delinquency, (2) the State does not have available programs and services adequate for the needs of juveniles, or (3) the offense charged is a crime of violence that is a felony or [one of a number of a specified drug or firearm offenses], and that there is a substantial Federal interest in the case or the offense to warrant the exercise of federal jurisdiction.

18 U.S.C. § 5032. In the certification submitted in Juvenile # 1's case, the stated basis was the third prong, "a crime of violence ... and a substantial Federal interest." No further reasons were given, either in the certification document or at the transfer hearing, for the government's ³ decision to proceed in federal court rather than permitting the state authorities to handle the matter.

Juvenile # 1 moved to dismiss the case on the ground that the Attorney General had failed to show a "substantial Federal interest" that would justify the exercise of federal jurisdiction. The government countered that the statute only required that the certification state that the case met one of the statutory criteria, which it did. The district court ruled that the form of the certification was indeed proper, and, further, that the basis of the government's decision--the nature of the "substantial Federal interest"--was not a reviewable matter. On appeal, the threshold questions are these: Is the government's decision to proceed in federal court reviewable by the court, and, if so, to what extent?

A

The Attorney General clearly has the authority to initiate federal charges of juvenile delinquency. The issue is whether this prosecutorial discretion, once exercised, imbues the court with jurisdiction to proceed without further inquiry into whether the case actually meets the statutory criteria. ⁴

The reviewability of the Attorney General's certification decision has generated a circuit split. ⁵ One court of appeals has held that the courts have the authority to review more than the mere form of the government's certification. In United States v. Juvenile Male, 923 F.2d 614 (8th Cir.1991), the appeals court considered whether the offenses charged--travel in interstate commerce with intent to murder and conspiracy to murder--were "crimes of violence" within the meaning of § 5032(3). After deciding that they were, the court moved on to the form of the certification and found it lacking because it failed to state that there was a substantial federal interest in the case. Id. at 620. This technical requirement was deemed a "jurisdictional prerequisite," albeit one that could be readily remedied by retyping the certification document. Id. No mention was made of reviewing the basis for finding a "substantial Federal interest," but the implication is that merely reciting the statutory language would be sufficient. See id. at 617-18 ("While this court may not have the power to guide a federal prosecutor's discretion, we must insure that the exercise of that discretion is within the confines of section 5032."). See also United States v. Doe, 49 F.3d 859, 866-67 (2nd Cir.1995) (reviewing district court's finding that the offense charged was a "crime of violence" within § 5032's certification provisions).

The Second and Eleventh Circuits, on the other hand, have held that the district court may not look behind the certification decision except where there are allegations of prosecutorial bad faith. See United States v. C.G., 736 F.2d 1474 (11th Cir.1984); United States v. Vancier, 515 F.2d 1378 (2nd Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 857, 96 S.Ct. 107, 46 L.Ed.2d 82 (1975). In Vancier, the court pointed to the lack of any specific statutory provision for judicial review and the lack of standards under which such review should be conducted. Id. at 1380. The certification also was viewed as belonging to a category of unreviewable prosecutorial decisions, such as a determination that the public interest requires that a witness be compelled to testify under immunity. Id. at 1381. ⁶ Under this view, the certification requirement "qualifies the Government's discretion, ... but it does not grant the power to the courts to make the final decision." Id. at 1380-81.

B

One district court in our circuit has concluded, based on the Eighth Circuit's decision in Juvenile Male, that the "substantial Federal interest" element of the certification is reviewable. United States v. Male Juvenile, 844 F.Supp. 280 (E.D.Va.1994). ⁷ Confronted with an obvious crime of violence--armed bank robbery--the court pointed to a Senate report on the 1984 amendments in which the committee noted that a "substantial Federal interest" should only be found in cases that

give rise to special Federal concerns. Examples of such cases could include an assault on, or assassination of, a Federal official, an aircraft hijacking, a kidnapping where state boundaries are crossed, a major espionage or sabotage offense, participation in large-scale drug trafficking, or significant or willful destruction of property belonging to the United States.

Id. at 283 (quoting S. Rep. at 389). The court concluded that the certification requirement was intended to limit federal jurisdiction over juveniles to something less than all violent federal offenses; otherwise, "the 'substantial Federal interest' language would be reduced to mere surplusage." Id. at 284. The court then ruled that "the Government's interest in an ordinary bank robbery, absent some allegation of...