In the Interest of P.M.P.
Published Apr 17, 2009, RUTGERS URBAN LEGAL CLINIC, RUTGERS SCHOOL OF LAW—NEWARK, NATIONAL JUVENILE DEFENDER CENTER, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF NEW JERSEY, CHILDREN’S JUSTICE CENTER, RUTGERS SCHOOL OF LAW—CAMDEN, NORTHEAST JUVENILE DEFENDER CENTER
Download
(181 KB)
This amicus brief, filed by the Rutgers Urban Legal Clinic, the National Juvenile Defender Center, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, the Rutgers School of Law's Children's Justice Center and the Northeast Juvenile Defender Center in the New Jersey Supreme Court case In the Interest of P.M.P., argues that the Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches, at the latest, when a delinquency petition or complaint is filed. The brief argues that advances in the study of adolescent brain development support the adoption of additional procedural safeguards for juveniles. The brief further states that case law, statutes and rules from New Jersey and other jurisdictions, as well as national practice standards, support the attachment of the right to counsel when a delinquency petition or complaint is filed. The amici argue that New Jersey's participation in the Juvenile Indigent Defense Action Network uniquely situates it as a state that can implement further procedural protections for juvenile defendants. In P.M.P., a twenty-year old defendant was interrogated, in the absence of counsel, in relation to allegations of delinquent conduct committed when he was a juvenile.
