Children Tried as Adults in Tennessee
The issue of children being tried as adults is one of the most controversial aspects of criminal law. There is an obvious tension between punishing the offender based on the severity of offense and protecting an offender whose youth and immaturity may dictate that he or she did not fully understand the consequences of his or her actions or possess the requisite intent. In order to try to balance this tension, Tennessee law allows a juvenile to be transferred from juvenile court to be tried as an adult, but only in limited circumstances. This is part of a comprehensive endeavor by Tennessee to define at what age a citizen could, and should, be considered capable of possessing the mental ability and requisite intent to commit a crime.
Any person who is under seven years of age in Tennessee is conclusively presumed to not be accountable for their actions. This applies regardless of the offense and is not an absolute rule. Persons between the ages of seven and fourteen are presumed to be incapable of committing a crime, but that presumption can be overcome if the circumstances show that the offender was clearly able to distinguish between good and evil at the time of the offense. A person above the age of fourteen is considered capable of distinguishing between right and wrong unless the circumstances indicate otherwise. Between the ages of seven and eighteen, any offender who is charged with a juvenile crime in East Tennessee will be handled by the juvenile court system unless they are transferred to a criminal court and tried as an adult.
T.C.A. section 37-1-134 sets out the requirements for an offender to be transferred from juvenile court to a criminal court to be tried as an adult. First, the offender must have been sixteen years-old or older at the time of the offense unless the offender is charged with “first degree murder, second degree murder, rape, aggravated rape, rape of a child, aggravated robbery, especially aggravated robbery, kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping or especially aggravated kidnapping or an attempt to commit any such offenses,” in which case the offender can be tried as an adult at any age (excluding children seven years-old and younger, see above). Second, a hearing on the transfer must be conducted in conformity with applicable law. Third, reasonable notice must be given to the child and the child’s legal guardian prior to the hearing. Fourth, the court must find that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the child committed the delinquent act(s) as alleged, the child is not committable to an institution for the developmentally disabled or mentally ill, and the interests of the community require that the child be put under legal restraint or discipline. The statute includes a list of factors the court can consider in making this determination.
Once a child has been transferred to criminal court to be tried as an adult, he or she will lose those protections available only to children and will stand accountable for their crimes as adults would, with one major exception. Under no circumstances does Tennessee law allow a child transferred from juvenile court to be tried as an adult to face the death penalty. In fact, the statute prohibits the death penalty from being sought by the district attorney general in such cases and prohibits the offender from receiving the death penalty under any circumstances. Tennessee recognizes that some offenses are so severe that they must be punished to the fullest extent of the law, regardless of the age of the offender. However, it imposes a limited set of circumstances under which children may be tried as adults in order to try to reconcile the need for punishment of such offenses with the need for protection of a class of people who lack the ability to protect themselves.
Source: 18 Tenn. Juris. MINORS section 11; T.C.A. section 37-1-134.
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