Juvenile Law Center, along with private attorneys Dennis Elisco and Stephen Colafella, filed this brief in the Superior Court of Pennsylvania on behalf of 14-year-old J.B., arguing that J.B. should be released from detention pending his adjudicatory hearing in juvenile court.
J.B. was arrested in February 2009, when he was 11 years old, and charged with the murder of his father's pregnant girlfriend. He has been continuously detained in custody since that time. While J.B. was initially charged in adult court, Juvenile Law Center and his private attorneys successfully fought to have J.B.'s case heard in juvenile court. But when the juvenile court was finally ready to hold J.B.'s adjudicatory hearing in September 2011, three media companies intervened in the case to argue that the proceedings should be open to the public. The juvenile court denied the media companies' request, leading them to file an appeal with the Pennsylvania Superior Court, which also issued a stay of J.B.'s adjudicatory hearing until resolution of the media's appeal. In the meantime, J.B. has been sitting in detention for almost three years without being afforded the opportunity of an adjudicatory hearing in juvenile court.
The brief argues that J.B. must immediately be released from detention pending his adjudicatory hearing because his unlawful detention violates Pennsylvania's Juvenile Act. Specifically, because his adjudicatory hearing was not held within the ten-day period set forth in 42 PA. CONN. STAT. ANN. § 6335(a), and the delay was not caused by either J.B. or his counsel, Pennsylvania law mandates his immediate release while he awaits his adjudicatory hearing.
The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the lower court's decision to close J.B.'s trial to the public.
"Superior court bans public from 14-year-old's murder trial," Bill Vidonic, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 2/23/12
"Newspapers won't appeal closing of boy's homicide trial," Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 2/25/12
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