Red Lake shootings:
Juvenile facing federal system
Pam Louwagie, Star Tribune
July 18, 2005 JUVENILE0718
Because he is accused of conspiring to murder on Red Lake, an Indian
reservation with an unusual sovereign status, teenager Louis Jourdain
is facing a criminal justice system that most kids in his situation
wouldn't.
Instead of heading to the well-worn halls of the state's juvenile
system, Jourdain is facing the federal system, which is less
accustomed to handling teenage defendants.
Jourdain was charged in federal court at 16 years old after the March
21 school shootings in which Jeff Weise shot and killed 10 people,
including himself.
If prosecutors are seeking to have Jourdain tried as an adult, a key
step in the legal process would be for a judge to hear evidence about
whether Jourdain should be removed from the juvenile system.
A source with knowledge of the case has said that Jourdain is charged
with conspiracy to commit murder, which carries a possible life
sentence if convicted as an adult in federal court. But if he's found
guilty as a juvenile, he would likely be released at age 21.
Louis JourdainKare-11 TelevisionRed Lake Principal Chris Dunshee said
that one of his counselors has been asked to provide Jourdain's
school records and to appear in court on Wednesday. He had no other
details about what was happening in the courtroom. Those formally
connected with the case are not allowed to comment because it is
currently a juvenile matter.
Monday morning, tribal Chairman Floyd (Buck) Jourdain Jr. walked into
a sealed court procedure in U.S. District Court in St. Paul.
A U.S. marshal stood in front of U..S. District Judge Donovan Frank's
locked door. Windows were covered with white paper.
In an interview, U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger would not even
acknowledge the existence of Jourdain's case.
Federal judges consider many of the same factors that state judges do
in determining how to handle teenagers. But the system typically gets
less scrutiny from legal observers.
"It certainly isn't on the radar screen and it probably should be,"
said Gail Chang Bohr, executive director of the Children's Law Center
of Minnesota.
The federal system sees so few juveniles that the legal world doesn't
pay much attention, observers say. Some who do watch contend that,
while it is similar in many ways to state systems, federal juvenile
suspects may be up against tougher odds and face penalties less
geared toward rehabilitation.
"If there were more kids ... people would start to say, 'You've got
thousands of kids, what are you doing with them?'" said Melissa
Sickmund, senior research associate at the National Center for
Juvenile Justice in Pittsburgh.
More state resources
In general, Heffelfinger said, in cases where states and the federal
government share jurisdiction, federal prosecutors are not likely to
take juvenile cases. "The states have ... a lot more resources
devoted to juvenile matters," he said.
In Red Lake and some other places, however, state prosecution is not
an option.
Most juvenile cases in federal court come from either Indian
reservations such as Red Lake or military bases, where the federal
government has jurisdiction.
During 1995, for instance, 468 juveniles were referred to federal
prosecutors for investigation nationwide, and prosecutors declined 49
percent of those cases, according to Department of Justice
statistics. More than half of the juvenile delinquents being held by
the federal Bureau of Prisons were American Indian, the statistics
said.
By contrast, Minnesota's state court system handled nearly 47,000
cases involving juveniles in 2004, ranging from petty offenses to
felonies.
Red Lake, where Louis Jourdain is the son of tribal Chairman Floyd
(Buck) Jourdain Jr., is one of two Minnesota reservations with an
unusual arrangement in which the state has no jurisdiction. That
means kids from there go to federal court, giving attorneys and
judges in Minnesota's federal system more experience with juveniles
than most of their federal peers, but still very little compared to
state systems. More...
Because federal juvenile cases are not open to the public, a U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman declined to provide statistics on the number of cases in a year in Minnesota.
Minnesota's acting federal defender, Scott Tilsen, estimated that appointed defenders represent about a dozen juveniles a year. In some cases, Tilsen said, if a juvenile has a history of delinquency and a crime is serious enough, a federal prosecutor can automatically try the juvenile as an adult.
In other cases -- apparently Jourdain's -- a judge decides whether a teen is to be tried as an adult or juvenile after considering factors including the juvenile's age and social background, the nature of the offense, any prior record, intellectual development and psychological maturity, response to any past treatment and the availability of programs to treat behavioral problems.
Wide range of options
In federal court, teenagers prosecuted as juveniles do not have the right to a jury trial, but they also can't technically be convicted of a crime -- only found delinquent. Their cases are not public and if they are under age 18, they can be held only until age 21 in most cases.
In Minnesota's system, a 16- or 17-year-old has the burden under state law of showing why he or she shouldn't be prosecuted as an adult for a felony that would likely result in a prison sentence for adults.
Those who are 14 or 15 can have their cases tried in adult court if the prosecution makes a successful argument to do so, as is the case with John Jason McLaughlin, who was 15 at the time he allegedly killed two other students at Rocori High School in 2003. That trial is going on in St. Cloud.
George Hart, a retired case manager for the Minneapolis community corrections office of the federal Bureau of Prisons, said juveniles found delinquent in a violent crime in Minnesota have typically been committed to one of three facilities that the federal government contracts with in the Dakotas, each housing about 15 to 30 juveniles and offering educational programs and counseling.
The facilities are locked, he said, and juveniles sleep in cells.
If a judge sentences a delinquent juvenile to probation, the judge can help select a program for the juvenile to go to as a condition of that probation, Hart explained. That means a much wider range of options, he said.
It's possible a federal judge could sentence a juvenile to home confinement, but Hart said it's not likely.
"You look at the kid, you look at the crime and then you make a placement that is appropriate for the kid and the crime," Heffelfinger said.
A juvenile in the federal system could end up in the same place as a juvenile in the state system, he added.
If tried as an adult, the federal government typically sends offenders under 18 to juvenile facilities until they turn 18, when they go to adult prison, Hart said.
Hennepin County Juvenile Court Judge Katherian Roe, a former assistant federal public defender whose clients included juveniles, said kids who start with smaller offenses as juveniles are more likely to be given second chances through tiers of punishment in state juvenile courts, starting with programs they might visit every day while living at home, for instance.
In federal courts, which don't have as intricate a system for handling children, juvenile delinquents are more likely to be sent far from home, she said.
"It's been an issue that the Indian community has had problems with sometimes because Indian kids are treated more harshly when they violate the law if they are in Indian country," Roe said.
Staff writer Terry Collins contributed to this report.
Pam Louwagie is at Pam Louwagie
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Last updated on July 18, 2005