Bill that would modify ‘Raise the Age’ law heads to NC governor’s desk

RALEIGH, N.C. — Some teenagers accused of committing crimes in North Carolina may be charged as adults again.

A bill is now heading to the desk of North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper that rolls back some of the state’s “Raise the Age” law. It’s something that received bipartisan support but was also contentious.

Channel 9 has covered Raise the Age extensively. Right now, 16 and 17-year-olds are charged as juveniles for crimes. Depending on the seriousness of the crime, they could be transferred into adult court, but that process can take a while.

House Bill 834 would change that. The bill, which has now passed both the House and Senate, is headed to the governor. If Cooper signs it into law, any 16 or 17-year-olds charged with certain crimes in North Carolina would automatically be charged as adults.

Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed represents Mecklenburg County.

“I think what 16 and 17-year-olds need to understand is that you have a direct ticket now to the adult criminal justice system,” he told Channel 9′s Hunter Sáenz.

Mohammed was on the fence about the proposed law but ultimately voted for it, saying it expedites the process in place.

Lawmakers passed the Raise the Age law in 2019. In addition to sending 16 and 17-year-olds to juvenile court first, the law also protects their identities. If they were charged with serious felonies like murder, their case would move to adult court after an indictment or finding of probable cause.

The new bill would return to the previous policy of charging the teens automatically as adults for violent crimes that include murder, second-degree murder, rape, sex assault, armed robbery, and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill.

The proposed law would allow cases to be sent down from adult court to juvenile court if all parties agree. It would also allow law enforcement to go after adults who solicit minors to do crime, and it would charge them with the same crime.

But not everyone is in favor of the change.

“Juveniles are juveniles for a reason. Their brains aren’t developed until 25,” said Rep. Marcia Morey.

She’s a former juvenile court judge herself and told her colleagues the new bill is the wrong move.

“Rolling back Raise the Age with this bill by creating a fiction of what a juvenile is, based on a crime and not the age, is the wrong way to go,” Morey said.

But the House still passed the bill. There’s no word on whether Gov. Cooper will sign it into law.

In a statement, deputy secretary for North Carolina Juvenile Justice William Lassiter said he supports the change because it expedites the process that’s largely in place already.

Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather also said he supports it.

Read Lassiter’s statement below:

“The Department of Public Safety worked with interested stakeholders to amend HB 834 to its present form. Specifically, the Department sought to add components to the bill that will allow juveniles to be removed from adult court and transferred to juvenile court if all parties involved believe that is the best option to protect public safety, and in the best interest of the juvenile involved. This bill reflects what the Department originally agreed to under the Raise the Age compromise with stakeholders: that the most serious offenses and violent 16- and 17-year-olds would be transferred to adult court. This bill expedites the process to put these cases in adult court but also, due to the Department’s influence, provides the possibility to move these cases to juvenile court. The Department also pushed to add a provision (which is included) to charge adults who influence youth to commit crimes with the exact same crime as the juvenile. This was put into place to try and stop older adults from using youth to commit crimes for them.”

Read Merriweather’s statement below:

“At the time of passage of the original Raise the Age legislation, most supported it with the understanding that our juvenile courts were the best place to confront minor youthful transgressions of 16 and 17 year olds and that Superior Court would remain the best place to handle more serious offenses. The proposed legislation, as I understand it, clarifies processes in line with that spirit, so I do support it.”

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Raise the Age: NC juvenile justice leader wants more funding to prevent teen crime

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