4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules juvenile delinquents were not

A juvenile adjudication can only count as a predicate offense for federal gun charges if state laws specifically allow for it, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has held.

The decision is a win for Christopher Walters, DeAndre Avion Davis, and Deon Montieal Crudup, all from Virginia. The appeals court held they may not be charged as felons in possession of firearms because the predicate offense in each case was a juvenile adjudication, and Virginia law does not recognize juvenile adjudications as convictions.

Maryland law makes the same distinction.

Barbara Sale, chief of the criminal division at U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland, said yesterday it is extremely unlikely that any gun charges would have been brought against a juvenile here based purely upon an adjudication, which is what happened in Virginia.

It is adult convictions we are looking for, she added.

Joyce Wright, who heads the juvenile division at the State's Attorney's Office in Baltimore City, said she also was unaware of whether federal prosecutors in Maryland have ever sought to bring similar charges against juveniles without having adult convictions to rely on.

Commenting on the ramifications of the opinion, University of Baltimore School of Law Professor Odeana R. Neal stressed that it applies only to the federal gun law.

She also noted that some federal laws do count juvenile delinquency to enhance certain adult penalties.

In last week's opinion, Judge Allyson J. Duncan wrote that prosecutors had misread Virginia's gun statute in construing that a juvenile adjudication could be viewed as a conviction.

The plain language of the statutory provision on which the Government relies treats the conviction of a felony as distinct from adjudication as a juvenile, she wrote.

Prosecutors had conceded that juvenile adjudications are different than adult convictions, but had nevertheless argued that adjudications could have the effect of a conviction based on Virginia's firearm law.

This states that anyone convicted of a felony, or anyone under the age of 29 who was found guilty of a delinquent act that would be a felony if he or she was an adult, is prohibited from possessing a firearm.

But Duncan wrote that the Virginia statute does not support the result the Government seeks, because it incorporates the very juvenile adjudication/conviction dichotomy the Government contends is irrelevant.

Norfolk, Va.-based lawyer Jennifer T. Stanton, who represented Crudup, said yesterday the court had stressed that federal law dictates that state law will control in defining what a conviction is.

In this particular case, none of the youths had been charged as adults or had any other convictions.

All three of them got charged as adult felons but didn't have any adult convictions, Stanton added.

Alexandria, Va.-based Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael James Elston did not return a call seeking comment.

WHAT THE COURT HELD

Case:

U.S. v. Walters et al. US4th No. 02-4926, 03-4015, and 03-4090. Opinion by Duncan, J. Decided Feb. 20, 2004...

Issue:

Can a juvenile adjudication count as a predicate offense under state and federal firearms law?

Holding:

It can if state law defines a juvenile adjudication as a conviction, which was not the case here. Affirmed in part, vacated and remanded in part.

Counsel:

Michael James Elston, assistant U.S. Attorney, Alexandria, Va., for appellant; Paul Geoffrey Gill, assistant federal public defender, Richmond, Va., for appellee.

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