Waiver of Juvenile Must be Considered in Light of Statutory Waiver Criteria

In State v. Doe, the Supreme Court affirms the waiver of an immature 12-year-old with an IQ of 75 into adult court in a case where both the defense expert and juvenile probation department recommend against waiver.

The Supreme Court noted that "Doe argues that the magistrate's waiver decision was an abuse of discretion under the [State v.] Gibbs[, 94 Idaho 908, 500 P.2d 209 (1972)] criteria." It goes on to say that since "Gibbs was decided before the Legislature amended the waiver statute to include the six factors courts must now consider in making waiver decisions." "[S]uch decisions are now governed by the section 20-508(8) factors."

Next the Court, while acknowledging the force of some of Doe's policy arguments against waiver, dismisses them as not relevant because they were outside the statutory criteria.

The Court then concluded that the magistrate court did not abuse its discretion because it considered all of the proper factors and based its findings on sufficient evidence.

http://www.isc.idaho.gov/opinions/doe.opinion.pdf