Plan to pull NC 6- and 7-year-olds from court clears final vote, sending it to governor

The North Carolina Senate approved a bill Tuesday to raise the minimum age at which a child can face prosecution in the state from 6 to 8. Now the bill heads to Gov. Roy Cooper’s desk to sign.

The change would stop two years short of the minimum age of 10 in an initial bill that was introduced and passed in the Senate in March.

Rep. Danny Britt, a Robeson County Republican and one of the primary sponsors of Senate Bill 207, said the minimum age was lowered from 10 to 8 after officials with the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys expressed concern about young people committing serious crimes.

“There were also members in the House that had concerns as well,” he said.

In response, lawmakers changed the language of the bill to say people as young as 8 could face accusations that are the equivalent of felonies, while only those 10 and up could be accused of the equivalent of misdemeanors and some low-level felonies.

“I think anytime we move things into a better direction, even if we don’t get it all the way to where we want to have it, I think we have done a lot of good, “ Britt said after the Senate vote.

Over the last three years, about 30 children ages 8 to 10 faced juvenile charges that would meet the definition of serious felony in the bill, while more than 1,000 would have been kept from the system under the change in the bill, Britt said.

Many of those children who faced those serious charges faced an assault or sex offense charge, he said.

“These are people who need a little more, even at that age, need a little bit more services that can be better provided through juvenile delinquency court,” Britt said.

Minimum age in other states

Some advocates and experts, including the National Juvenile Justice Network, recommend an age limit of 14 years old for the juvenile justice system.

The North Carolina Task Force for Racial Equity, established by Democratic Gov. Cooper, recommended setting North Carolina’s age limit at 12.

The change approved Tuesday takes North Carolina from having the lowest set age of juvenile jurisdiction, to being among three others, Arizona, Nevada and Washington, which set the minimum age at 8.

Three states set the minimum age at 7 and 12 states set it at 10.

Three other states set the age at either 11 or 12, according to information provided by the state’s Juvenile Justice department.

Twenty-nine other states don’t set a minimum age for prosecution of children.

Kids in court

Advocates say young children lack the mental capacity to understand the juvenile justice process and its consequences. They can’t make informed decisions about talking with police, admitting to the accusations against them and going to trial, The News & Observer reported.

Cases brought against young children in North Carolina have included a 6-year-old who picked a tulip at a bus stop, a 9-year-old with autism who threw a pencil at a teacher, and children who have broken windows, The News & Observer reported.

Democratic Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed of Charlotte, who works as a public defender in Mecklenburg County, co-sponsored the bill with Britt and Sen. Warren Daniel, a Morganton Republican. Mohammed said in an interview after the vote Tuesday that he started his legal career representing kids in court, so he has firsthand experience with these issues, and he thinks the bill is a good starting place for more reforms in the future.

”There are too many children being shuttled off to detention centers,” he said.

Mohammed added that he’s glad North Carolina will finally lose the stigma of being the only state in the country that specifically allowed 6-year-olds to be brought to court. But he’s disappointed it didn’t happen sooner, he said, as well as disappointed that in the end the legislature only agreed to raise the age to 8.

Rep. Marcia Morey, a former Durham County district judge turned House Democrat who introduced bills last and this year seeking to raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction, said she is pleased that the state is making progress but she, too, wanted the legislation to go further.

Morey said she doesn’t agree with the reasoning of the bill that subjects kids accused of the equivalent of felonies to a different standard than of misdemeanors. If they don’t have the capacity to proceed with misdemeanors, she doesn’t understand why they would have that capacity if it is a felony, she said.

“These are young children that need to be directed to services or counseling,” Morey said.

Morey encouraged attorneys representing those kids to ask for capacity hearings to ensure they understand the proceedings unfolding around them. She also said she will continue to push to have the age increased.

“We will keep working on it,” she said.

News & Observer reporter Will Doran contributed to this report.