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Are Juvenile Adjudications Prior Convictions Under Apprendi and Blakely? Take 2.

By Jeremy Price

On June 29, 2007, in People v. Nguyen (H028798), a two-justice majority of a panel from the Sixth District Court of Appeal concluded that "the use of a juvenile adjudication to enhance the defendant?s sentence beyond the ordinary, statutorily-mandated maximum sentence, pursuant to the Three Strikes law violates the defendant?s Apprendi rights, whether he was adjudicated a juvenile offender after a contested hearing or pursuant to an admission." On August 27, 2007, a unanimous panel from Division Four of the First District Court of Appeal issued a decision in People v. Tu (A105905), which, contrary to Nguyen, held that "since a juvenile court can constitutionally and reliably adjudicate a delinquency matter without affording the minor a jury trial, there is no constitutional impediment to the subsequent use of the juvenile adjudication for purposes of enhancing an adult offender?s sentence...continue to full post

Full post as published by Criminal Appeal on December 18, 2007 (boomark / email).