Everyone once in awhile–sometimes around Groundhog Day–our former colleague emerges to post some entertaining comments about a significant development in the law. These remarks about a SCOTUSblog “petition of the day” filed in Ohio v. Hand, now pending, were cut and pasted from Bill’s Facebook page.
Can a prior juvenile delinquency adjudication, obtained without affording the right to a jury trial, be used as a sentencing enhancer? Good chance SCOTUS will grant cert (it’s a state’s petition; there’s a deep and abiding nation-wide split of authority, state and federal). Wis SPD’s [Case Summaries] identified the issue a full decade ago. Click here. The sheer number of cases on opposite sides of divide, along with the recurrent nature of the issue very strongly suggests that this is a cert-worthy problem.”) — ahead of the curve! Speaking of which (ahem, blood alcohol curve), there’s an argument that the same logic underlying attack on juvie-enhancement applies to OWI-1st enhancer, at least in Wisconsin.
Here is the petition, if you would like to review it.
