Brandon McInerney has recently filed a Petition for Review with the California Supreme Court. The Petition can be found in its entirety here: PETITION FOR REVIEW.
The issue presented for review is fairly straight forward: Whether a minor, whose case is discretionarily “direct-filed” in a criminal court pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 707(d), may obtain a discovery order directing the district attorney to produce information relevant to his claims that the direct-filing amounts to an abuse of discretion, and that the prosecution deprives him of his liberty without due process of law.
Brandon’s attorneys believe the California Supreme Court holds the key to settling an important question of law, regarding how minors as young as 14 years of age can be subjected to a district attorneys’ direct-filing determinations and practices, since Proposition 21 went into effect in March of 2000. Although it has long been held that judicial determinations of unfitness may be reversed for abuse of discretion, no case currently exists with regard to the prosecutor’s exercise of discretion, and no appellate court has yet “opined about whether a prosecutor’s direct-filing of a minor’s case in criminal court and implied finding of unfitness is similarly reviewable for abuse of discretion.”
Very interesting indeed. This will be a very important decision in Brandon McInerney’s bid to gain the right to rehabilitate himself through the California state juvenile system. It could also affect other minors being charged and prosecuted as adults both here in California and the other forty-nine states. How the California Supreme Court decides to handle this case could have tremendous impact for the way juveniles are prosecuted for years to come, all across the world. Do we continue to punish and destroy kids deemed socially unworthy, as the prosecutor of Brandon McInerney is bent on doing in this case? Or do we utilize our vast resources of intelligence and compassion to try to rehabilitate these children and reincorporate them back into society. Please, read the petition, and tell us what you think.
One Comment
I’ve read Wippert’s petition for review. It’s incredibly short-sighted. It’s long been thought that one of the best assurances of individual liberty, one of the best protections against prosecutorial overreaching, is the trial by jury. As I understand it, Wippert wants Brandon to be tried by a judge, in a secret hearing, with no accountability. There will be no press reporting of the trial. There will be no public review whatsoever. It will amount to nothing. The supreme court will not force a prosecutor to disclose his reasons for filing a criminal case absent some showing there’s been improper action. And Wippert’s citation of a few quotations by the prosecutor isn’t going to cut it.