Juvenile Law Center, The Gault Center et al. Amicus Brief, Ohio v. Quarterman 

This amicus brief by Juvenile Law Center, The Gault Center, and others argues Ohio’s mandatory bindover statute violates the Due Process protections guaranteed by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as the mandatory scheme does not allow for individualized sentencing and recognition of the unique characteristics of youth. Further, amici argue individualized transfer proceedings are constitutionally necessary since adult court puts young people at risk of all the individual harms of incarceration and the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction.
From the Argument of the Brief: “PROPOSITION OF LAW: OHIO’S MANDATORY BINDOVER STATUTES ARE UNCONSTITUTIONAL UNDER THE DUE PROCESS CLAUSE OF THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT BECAUSE THEY DO NO`I’ ALLOW FOR INDIVIDUALIZED DETERMINATIONS REGARDING THE PROPRIETY OF PROSECUTING CERTAIN MINORS IN ADULT CRIMINAL COURT RATIIER THAN JUVENILE COURT.
Ohio Revised Code sections 152. 10(A)(2)(b) and 2152.12(A)(1)(b) violate the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments by mandating that 16- and 17-year old youth be transferred to adult court for prosecution if there is probable cause to support that the youth has committed a category two offense with a firearm. Following this probable cause determination, which takes place in juvenile court, the transfer scheme requires adult prosecution for all such youth, based solely on the crime with which they have been charged and their age at the time the crime was allegedly committed. By depriving youth of any individualized determination of amenability, this scheme denies young people their due process rights. See U.S. Const., XIV Amend. It runs afoul of general due process principles, the Supreme Court’s determination in Kent v. United States, 383 U.S. 541 (1966), that youth are entitled to particularly strong due process protections when their cases are transferred from juvenile to adult court, and the Supreme Court’s precedents recognizing that juveniles possess unique characteristics that make adult sentences often inappropriate.”