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September 11, 2007

Lynch blasts law letting 17-year-olds be tried as adults

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch today said that a new state law in which 17-year-olds are tried as adults "could wreak havoc on the criminal justice system" unless other laws are amended, and he pressed the General Assembly to take "corrective action."

The law has changed the way 17-year-old offenders ought to be processed, interrogated and housed, as well as how a 17-year-old’s records ought to be treated with regards to the Access to Public Records Act, Lynch said in an afternoon news release.

Lynch released his remarks along with a letter he sent to the head of the Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association. He said police departments have sought his office’s legal advice on the new law’s ramifications.

Unless the Legislature amends other laws "to more clearly reflect its intent" under the new law, Lynch contends there will be problems.

“The overriding issue is that the Legislature — in approving what the governor proposed, with both apparently focusing primarily on budgetary concerns — merely addressed jurisdiction and failed to amend any of the other statutes dealing with the arrest and prosecution of 17-year-old defendants, such as those related to public records, processing, housing and interrogation.

"All these statutes remain in full force and effect, but their application to 17-year-olds has been questioned,” Lynch said in his letter to Bristol Police Chief Russell Serpa, the state Police Chiefs Association president.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 6:13 PM | Permalink

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