Original reporting · Southern Illinoisan
Illinois Supreme Court amends rules for juvenile court appeals
What happened
The Illinois Supreme Court has changed its rules so that a juvenile court’s decision to send a young person’s case to adult court can be appealed right away, the Southern Illinoisan reported. According to the paper, Chief Justice P. Scott Neville, Jr. and the court announced amendments to Rules 307 and 660 last week that allow an interlocutory appeal (one taken while the case is still pending) of a transfer order. The change gives minors the chance to request “expedited appellate review of a juvenile court’s transfer order,” the Southern reported, and it took effect immediately.
The proposal came from the state Supreme Court’s Committee on Juvenile Courts and was championed by former Cook County Circuit Court Judge Stuart Katz, who died earlier this year, the Southern reported. The committee’s chair, 15th Circuit Judge John B. Roe IV, called Katz “a pioneer in reforming the juvenile justice system in Illinois,” according to the paper, and said the change reflects Katz’s “goal of improving the efficiency of the juvenile court process.”
As the Southern described it, Rule 307 lists orders that can be appealed before a circuit court case is finished. It now includes orders “granting or denying” a petition under 705 ILCS 405/5-805, in which the state asks to have a minor tried under adult criminal law. Rule 660 governs appeals under the Juvenile Court Act, the paper reported.
The Southern frames the change as an opportunity for minors and does not discuss appeals by the state, though the rule language it quotes covers orders granting or denying a transfer. The article includes no comment from prosecutors, defense lawyers or families, and does not say how many transfer petitions Illinois courts hear or how quickly these appeals will be decided.
Our reflection
A transfer hearing is short, and its reach is long. In one ruling a judge decides whether a young person will be answered as a child who can still be formed, or tried “under the criminal laws of the state,” as the rule puts it. A parent or grandparent sits behind that young person. Across the room there may be a family that was hurt and needs its loss taken seriously. All of them live with that one decision.
Most of us know what it is to be transferred in someone’s head. A teacher or a father decided early what we were, and the verdict outlived the facts. Most of us have done it to someone else, too. We read a charge and feel we know the whole person. That speed feels like wisdom. Usually it is fear. Jesus names it: judging, with the measure that will be used on us (Matthew 7:1 to 2).
Jesus knows what a hurried verdict does. The night he was arrested, the council went looking for testimony against him, and the witnesses could not agree with each other (Mark 14:55 to 59). The outcome was settled before the hearing began. Pilate found no guilt in him and handed him over anyway (Luke 23:4, 23:24 to 25). Then God overturned the verdict. Weeks later Peter told the same city that they had put Jesus to death, and God raised him up (Acts 2:23 to 24). The empty tomb is God’s ruling that the first judgment does not get the last word, and anyone who follows that Jesus should care about second looks.
That does not make every transfer wrong, and it does not shrink the harm done to anyone who was hurt. An appeal is how a court admits it can be wrong while there is still time to fix it. Judge Roe gave the credit to Judge Katz, who did not live to see the rule take effect. Much real reform looks like that: someone keeps pushing a fix few will read, and a young person they never meet gets a fairer hearing.
A right on paper only helps if someone knows to use it. If a young person you love faces a transfer petition in Illinois, ask the lawyer about this rule. Churches can do something simpler and harder: show up. A young man walks into that courtroom differently when an adult who knows his name is sitting behind him. Through our Chicago hub and juvenile intervention work, that presence is what we try to give, at first contact and long after. The steps below are a place to start this week.
The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.
Proverbs 18:17
Your move
Source: Southern Illinoisan, “Illinois Supreme Court amends rules for juvenile court appeals”