Consideration of Juvenile Information at Sentencing

A defendant’s prior North Carolina juvenile adjudications never count for sentencing points. That is true for felonies and misdemeanors alike. The definition of a “prior conviction” in Structured Sentencing (G.S. 15A-1340.11(7)) includes only a previous “conviction” for a “crime.” By law in North Carolina, a juvenile adjudication is not a conviction at all, and so it cannot be a prior conviction. G.S. 7B-2412 (“An adjudication that a juvenile is delinquent or commitment of a juvenile to the Division for placement in a youth development center shall neither be considered conviction of any criminal offense nor cause the juvenile to forfeit any citizenship rights.”). What about a prior out-of-state juvenile adjudication for an offense committed when the defendant was 16 or 17 years old? Had the defendant been in North Carolina, that behavior likely would have constituted a crime. Does that open the door for it to count for points here on a theory of “substantial similarity”? No. The substantial similarity analysis of G.S. 15A-1340.14(e) (described here) applies only to prior “convictions” in another jurisdiction when the other jurisdiction classifies the offense as a felony or misdemeanor. If the other state calls it an adjudication, then it seems to me it’s not a conviction for an offense classified as a misdemeanor or felony there. Failing that threshold determination, you don’t even proceed to the point of analyzing how a substantially similar offense would be categorized in North Carolina. Just as a juvenile adjudication may not count as a prior conviction, a defendant [...]