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The Juvenile Section
prosecutes crimes committed by juveniles, as well as
violations of laws regulating juvenile conduct. The
district court dedicated to hearing juvenile cases
in Tarrant County is located in the Scott Moore
Juvenile Justice Center on Kimbo Road, which is
northeast of downtown Fort Worth. The prosecution
team assigned to the juvenile court consists of
eight attorneys. These eight include one attorney
who focuses exclusively on the prosecution of
gun-related crimes committed by juveniles and one
attorney who focuses exclusively on the prosecution
of sexual assault offenses committed by juveniles.
In addition to these eight, one grant-funded
attorney is assigned to juvenile truancy.
Our office has
several options for handling juvenile offenders. In
the most severe cases where the juvenile is at least
fourteen years old, the State can petition the court
to certify the offender to stand trial as an adult.
In such cases, the accused would face the same
punishment as an adult offender, with the exception
of the death penalty.
For other violent
offenders and for habitual felony offenders the
State may seek a "determinate sentence." Under this
sentencing scheme, for the more serious offenses, a
juvenile could face up to a maximum of forty years
confinement in the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) with
a possible transfer to the adult prison system prior
to reaching age nineteen. Juvenile offenders who are
transferred from TYC to the adult prison system
would be required to serve the remainder of their
sentence in adult prison.
For the least
serious offenses, a juvenile offender faces the
possibility of being placed on probation or being
committed to TYC for an “indeterminate” period of
time. These offenders cannot be transferred to the
adult criminal justice system. For an offender who
receives probation, the term of probation must end
on or before he or she reaches age eighteen. If the
offender receives an indeterminate commitment to TYC,
he or she must be discharged on or before reaching
age nineteen.
In 2008 the
Juvenile Section of the District Attorney’s Office
handled 3,519 referrals for misconduct and criminal
law violations committed by juveniles. This figure
includes violations of probation and crimes ranging
from misdemeanors to capital murder. |