ON FEB. 13, The Sun ran an article under the headline, "Boy pleads guilty to murder solicitation; Teen asked classmate to kill, Arundel court told."
The article was about a 15-year-old youth who offered a Glen Burnie teen-ager $100 to kill a classmate who annoyed him by asking too many questions in class. No one was hurt by the threat made on a bus outside Old Mill Senior High School. But the incident took an unexpected twist when the Glen Burnie boy tried to extort $500 from the teen who asked him to commit the crime.
Both youths were charged as juveniles in the incident. While the article did a good job of explaining the boys' misdeeds, it contained inaccuracies that contribute to the public's lack of understanding of the way the juvenile justice system works.
For example, the article said, "Police charged the Glen Burnie youth with delinquency for attempting to extort money from his classmate, and a Juvenile Court judge found the Glen Burnie teen guilty in October."
It is also inaccurate to say that the other boy pleaded guilty to solicitation to commit murder. After adjudication, a juvenile judge or master finds either "facts sustained" or "facts not sustained." "Guilty" and "not guilty" are terms associated with adult criminal matters; they are not used used in juvenile court.
The Sun is not alone in making such mistakes.
An article that appeared in the Washington Post on July 1 made a similar error. The article said, "A Montgomery County judge will decide today whether Michael Schoenfeld, 17, caused the deaths last summer of three people in a collision on East West Highway, but yesterday the judge acquitted him of three of the four charges in the case."
"Acquit" is a word that is inapplicable to juvenile proceedings. It would have been correct to say, "The facts were not sustained."
The news media are often inaccurate in other ways. Often I have read articles or listened to broadcasts that identify juveniles as "defendants" and other gross inaccuracies.
Despite the shift in the treatment of juvenile offenders, Maryland law still requires essential precepts, or "best practices." These precepts are:
* Juveniles charged with delinquent acts are "respondents" -- not "defendants."
* At an initial hearing, a juvenile enters a plea of "deny" or "admit," never "guilty" or "not guilty."
* The hearing to determine whether the juvenile committed the alleged offense is called an "adjudicatory hearing," not a "trial."
