OCR Text |
Show JUVENILE COURT LAW. Judge Lewis of the Third District Court holds , that the Juvenile Court proceedings were void in law, where Al. Miller and Charles Baughman were sentenced to the county jail for contributing con-tributing to the delinquency of a girl of tender years. The point Is that the law establishing the Juvenile Court contains no provision for a jury trial, whereas the Constitution clearly recites re-cites that an offender may demand a jury to try his case. There were some Irregularities in the proceedings and sentence, also, but these were not serious se-rious enough to have voided the Juvenile Ju-venile Court's proceedings had there been any way possible In the law establishing es-tablishing that Court, to give the accused ac-cused their right of trial by jury. Judge Howell at Ogden the other day held another portion of the law to be Invalid; so that It seems this statute was not drawn with sufficient care. It is to bo hoped that the Juvenile Juve-nile Court may be strengthened by the next session of the Legislature, so that its duties and powers may be exactly defined, and its processes made conformable con-formable to law. It would be a misfortune mis-fortune to the State to have this court destroyed, as It Is liable to be, by adverse ad-verse decisions of the higher courts. This juvenile tribunal has done immense im-mense good In the cities where it has been established, and the people would be lost without It- Let It be established estab-lished on an enduring basis, so plainly and so firmly that there will be no mistaking what may or may not be done by it. |