The case is a half-century old this week, a landmark decision that merged jurisprudence, common sense and fortunate timing to reshape juvenile justice and give children many of the same due process rights long held by adults charged with crimes.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued on May 15, 1967, In re Gault,found for the first time that juvenile court cases are adversarial criminal proceedings. That gave youthful offenders the right to a defense lawyer, formal rules of criminal procedure and a chance to present their side of the story in an open hearing.
[For more of this story, written by John Holland, go to http://jjie.org/2017/05/15/a-l...ore-there-was-gault/]
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