By John Schwade, Correspondent
The News & Observer
RALEIGH, N.C. — Investigations spurred by the murders of UNC’s Eve Carson and Duke’s Abhijit Mahato have revealed problems in the criminal justice system, including one that hinders those responsible for protecting the public and rehabilitating criminals.
Juvenile court records detailing crimes committed before age 16 are seldom available to those who need them.
In the case of Laurence Alvin Lovette, charged with both the Carson and Mahato murders, access to his juvenile record, which included commitment to a juvenile detention center in 2006, might have indicated to a probation officer overwhelmed by 127 cases that Lovette’s should be considered high priority.
Durham District Attorney David Saacks complained that not even he could gain access to Lovette’s juvenile record when Lovette pleaded guilty last November to two property crimes, breaking and entering, and larceny -- the crimes for which he was serving probation when he allegedly committed two murders.
“I only get [access] if they’re charged in adult court with a violent offense,” Saacks explained. “I don’t think there’s a judge in the state who’s going to let us look into a juvenile record for a property offense. ... What happens in juvie stays in juvie.”
Worse, even when an adult is sentenced to prison for a violent crime, the record of violent crimes committed before his 16th birthday is usually not available to those who need to know -- not to those charged with maintaining the security of the institution nor those charged with rehabilitating the inmate.
If you worked in a prison, you’d want to know whether an inmate ever assaulted a staff member at a juvenile facility. And if, for example, a court ordered you to provide anger-management counseling to prevent a recurrence of a violent crime, you’d want to know whether a gross provocation contributed to the commission of that crime, or whether it was simply part of a lifelong pattern of assaulting others for fun and profit.
Having worked in a training school (now called a youth development academy) before transferring to a prison, I’m dismayed to find that upon becoming adult inmates, the men I knew as incarcerated juveniles could deny they were ever arrested as juveniles. In some cases, those adjudicated as juveniles for premeditated murder report that they never committed a violent crime as a juvenile. These claims are seldom refuted because prison authorities rarely have access to the records.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
North Carolina law provides that “The juvenile’s record of an adjudication of delinquency for an offense that would be a Class A, B1, B2, C, D, or E felony if committed by an adult may be used in a subsequent criminal proceeding... to prove an aggravating factor at sentencing....” To put the seriousness of such crimes into perspective, first-degree murder is a Class A felony, while voluntary manslaughter is a Class E felony.
It is not unreasonable to consider the prior commission of serious violent crimes, even if committed before one’s 16th birthday, as an aggravating factor that may result in a longer sentence (if aggravating circumstances outweigh mitigating circumstances). Although the record may be of juvenile offenses, the sentencing is for crimes committed as an adult, after the defendant has enjoyed and squandered the benefits of a sealed juvenile record.
But juvenile records may be used in adult sentencing “only by order of the court... upon motion of the prosecutor, after an in camera [away from a jury or courtroom spectators] hearing to determine whether the record in question is admissible.” Only a judge can release the record, and only if the prosecutor requests it.
There’s no sense pointing fingers. Prosecutors imply that judges are reluctant to release juvenile records in adult criminal proceedings, yet there is no way to know when or whether a prosecutor has requested access to those records.
Instead, courts should move toward considering juvenile records of violent offenses in all adult sentencing, even for property crimes. Otherwise, there is no way to know whether the adult facing a sentence for breaking into a home did the same thing as a juvenile -- and shot a resident who confronted him.
(John Schwade is a Durham resident and a psychologist at a state prison.)
Copyright 2008 The News and Observer