KING COUNTY, Wash. — Editor's note: The above video on teens being charged as adults related to an escape from Echo Glen Children's Center originally aired on June 2.
In recent weeks, multiple teens have been charged in adult court in King County due either to the seriousness of the alleged offenses or their criminal histories requiring them to be charged as adults according to state guidelines.
Recently a 16-year-old was charged as an adult for allegedly shooting and killing his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend at an Auburn intersection.
Four teens who escaped from a juvenile rehabilitation center were charged as adults for first-degree robbery, theft of a motor vehicle and escape in the first degree.
In some instances when a juvenile commits a crime, they will be charged as an adult automatically regardless of whether they’re under the age of 18. This is called an “auto-decline” and is more common than “discretionary decline” when a prosecutor requests to charge a teen as an adult, according to the King County Department of Public Defense.
A teen will be automatically charged as an adult in these cases:
- Youth who are 16 or 17 at the time they commit a crime and are charged with a “serious violent offense,” including murder in the first or second degree, homicide by abuse, manslaughter in the first degree, first-degree assault, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree rape, first-degree assault of a child, or an attempt to commit any of these offenses
- Youth who are 16 or 17 at the time of the crime and are charged with first-degree rape of a child
- Youth who are 16 or 17 at the time of the offense and are charged with a “violent offense” like robbery or have a criminal history that includes two or more prior violent offenses or three or more of any of the following: class A or class B felony, vehicular assault, or second-degree manslaughter all committed after the age of 13.
Youth aged 16 and 17 could previously be charged as adults for first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, drive-by shootings, or any offense committed with a firearm, but a 2018 change to state law took those offenses off the auto-decline list.
A case that was automatically declined to adult court may also be sent back to juvenile court with approval from both the defense, prosecution and the judge.
Before 2018, prosecutors could request to try juveniles as adults whenever they saw fit, but changes to state law limited the situations where those requests, called "discretionary declines," could be made.
Prosecutors can request a discretionary decline in these situations:
- Youth who are 15 and older charged with a “serious violent offense,” including first or second-degree murder, homicide by abuse, first-degree manslaughter, first-degree assault, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree rape, first-degree assault of a child or an attempt to commit any of these crimes.
- Youth who are 14 or younger charged with first or second-degree murder.
- Youth of any age charged with custodial assault while serving a minimum juvenile sentence to age 21.
According to a guide by the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, a declination to adult court is a “person-based” decision, meaning a judge must consider the personal traits of the child in addition to the offense they’re accused of. At a decline hearing, a judge hears evidence from the defense and the prosecution and considers the eight Kent factors before making a final decision.
The Kent factors are a set of criteria that are intended to provide guidance when making decisions about whether to move a case from juvenile to adult court, which was developed following a Supreme Court case in 1966.
Four factors have to do with the alleged offense committed and the other four with the teen in question.
A judge must consider:
- The seriousness of the alleged offense to the community and whether the protection of the community requires declination
- Whether the alleged offense was committed in an aggressive, violent, premeditated, or willful manner
- Whether the alleged offense was against persons or property, with greater weight given to offenses against persons, especially if personal injury resulted
- The merit of the complaint
- The desire for trial and disposition of the entire offense in one court – if the juvenile’s associates in the alleged offense are adults
- The sophistication and maturity of the juvenile as determined by consideration of his home, environmental situation, emotional attitude and pattern of living
- The record and previous history of the juvenile including previous contacts with law enforcement agencies, juvenile courts, prior periods of probation, prior commitments to juvenile institutions
- The prospect for adequate protection of the public and the likelihood of reasonable rehabilitation of the juvenile through procedures, services and facilities currently available to the juvenile court
Judges are not told how to weigh the factors against each other when making their decision. The factors are a topic of much litigation when it comes to deciding where a juvenile's case will ultimately be tried, according to Kimberly Ambrose, a lawyer and professor at the University of Washington School of Law with expertise in juvenile justice.
"The (factor) that gets litigated largely is the juvenile’s sophistication and maturity,” Ambrose said. “With that factor often defense council representing young people will bring in expert testimony or evaluators that talk about their emotional maturity and sophistication.”
In crimes where prosecutors argue juveniles showed more careful planning, and forethought or behaved more in a manner that an adult would, that's a strike against them remaining in juvenile court.
Ambrose said the last factor dealing with prospects for rehabilitating the respondent is also often litigated, with defense attorneys commonly arguing that because the juvenile system has more of a focus on rehabilitation than the adult penal system, it would be better for the public and their client for the case to remain in juvenile court.
"One of the reasons why folks representing young people don't want folks prosecuted in the adult system is we have very extreme sentences in the adult system," Ambrose said.
Before decline and sentencing guidelines changed, Amrbose represented a juvenile who did a drive-by shooting at the age of 16 and was automatically sent to the adult system. Although the teen did not hit anybody, he received a mandatory sentence of 94 years.
"Exposure in the adult system is really high to keep these kids incarcerated," Ambrose said.
Ambrose said juvenile justice advocates are pushing for a reassessment of the way courts make decisions about whether to send some juveniles to the adult system or whether teens should be tried as adults at all.
"Reality is that most teenage crime is pretty impulsive," Ambrose said. "Especially most of the crimes that end up in this scenario are going to involve guns, which leads to super impulsivity... There have been advocates that are still trying to... start thinking about whether the court should reconsider these factors, whether this 1966 case is really the right framework for looking at this."
If a teen is found guilty after being tried as an adult, a judge has the discretion to impose a sentence that is less than the standard adult sentence for the same crime. In a 2017 Washington State Supreme Court opinion, the justices decided judges must consider “the mitigating factors of youthfulness” when it comes to sentencing a juvenile.
Pre-trial if a teen is held in detention and post-sentencing if a teen is found guilty, they are not held in prison with adult populations. Those sentenced as teens are allowed to be held in the custody of the Department of Children, Youth and Families until the age of 25.