Lawmakers advance bill to keep young kids out of courtrooms

North Carolina courts can try a child as young as 6 years old. State lawmakers on Wednesday came one step closer to changing that.

Posted 5:39 p.m. Jun 30, 2021 — Updated 5:55 p.m. Jun 30, 2021

Laura Leslie

, WRAL Capitol Bureau chief

RALEIGH, N.C. — Children in North Carolina as young as 6 years old can be adjudged to be juvenile delinquents and called before a judge for a criminal hearing. That's the lowest age for criminal responsibility in the entire country.

State lawmakers came one step closer to changing that Wednesday.

Senate Bill 207 was crafted by members of both parties. It sets the minimum age for juvenile delinquency at 10 years old. Children younger than that who get into trouble would be handled through a "complaint consultation" with a juvenile court counselor and referred as needed to the state Department of Health and Human Services, rather than the criminal justice system.

The parents or guardians of the child would be required to comply with any recommendations for services resulting from the consultation.

New Hanover County Chief District Judge Julius Corpening, who chairs the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee, a task force that has been working on this and other "Raise the Age" juvenile justice reform issues, spoke in favor of the bill.

"Think for a second about a 6-year-old sitting in a chair at a table in a courtroom. Their feet can't touch the floor. What's going through their head is visions of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny," Corpening told a House Judiciary committee. "They don't understand what a lawyer is."

"Yet, we're calling on a 6-year-old to make a decision," he continued. "It's their decision about accepting responsibility, pleading guilty in the adult world."

According to the Associated Press, between 2016 and 2019, more than 200 children under 10 were summoned to court in the state.

Bill sponsor Sen. Warren Daniel, R-Burke, was asked how stakeholders had arrived at the new minimum age of 10 years old. He said that's the age most states use, although some have set the age at 12.

Divison of Juvenile Justice director William Lassiter said his agency is working on definitions of legal competency for children from 10 to 12.

The measure passed the Senate unanimously in March, but it had not been heard in a House committee until Wednesday, when it passed the House Judiciary committee with another unanimous vote.

Committee chairman Rep. Ted Davis, R-New Hanover, added provisions to it from his own juvenile justice bill, House Bill 615, defining "severe emotional disturbance" and requiring judges to order a full clinical evaluation of any delinquent child believed to have mental health issues or developmental disabilities.

The bill goes next to House Rules committee, and it could be on the House floor as soon as Thursday.

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