Amicus Brief in The People of New York against Errick Guerrero

The Sentencing Project, Youth Represent, the Gault Center, the Juvenile Law Center and two dozen organizations filed an amicus brief in New York State’s Court of Appeals (the highest court in that state) to protect more youth from being charged as if they were adults. New York State’s Raise the Age law — passed in 2017 — carves out cases for adult court where the young person used a firearm or deadly weapon, whether the offense was a sex crime, or the individual caused significant physical injury. If it does not match those criteria, the prosecutor must show that “extraordinary circumstances” exist to keep the case from moving to Family (i.e., Juvenile) Court.

Errick Guerrero, faces burglary and robbery charges — serious offenses that are not extraordinary. No serious effort was made to ascertain an individualized finding of his amenability to the juvenile system’s services. Indeed, his social media posts were used as evidence in the lower courts of his cruelty, while his many adverse childhood experiences, as well as his bipolar disorder, were not sufficiently considered by the courts. Instead, the fact that he had been exposed to some services previously but continued to offend was seen as proof enough that he was not amenable to those services.

The brief notes that opening further doors to adult courts would exacerbate the significant racial disparities in New York State’s treatment of youth and overturn the legislative intent of the Raise the Age reform.

Click here to read the brief.