Louisiana attorney general wants to move more teenagers from juvenile to adult court

Attorney General Liz Murrill wants state lawmakers to pass a new law that would move hundreds of criminal cases with 15- and 16-year-old defendants from juvenile to adult courts every year.

The request comes a few weeks after Louisiana overwhelmingly voted down a constitutional amendment that could have led to similar teenage transfers in the criminal justice system. 

Murrill included Senate Bill 74, sponsored by Sen. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, in her the package of bills she is pushing during the Louisiana Legislature’s 2025 session. As currently written, it would automatically put 15- and 16-year-olds charged with felony crimes who currently go before juvenile justice judges in front of district court judges who typically handle adult defendants. 

In an interview Tuesday, Murrill described the legislation as solely a “venue change,” meaning the teens would still be subjected to juvenile criminal standards and not face lengthier adult prison sentences. 

Opponents said the bill would throw four of the state’s largest court systems – in Orleans, Jefferson, East Baton Rouge and Caddo parishes – into chaos. Those jurisdictions have juvenile courts with judges who solely handle cases involving people under age 17. 

“Children are not simply tiny adults that you can handle in adult criminal court,” said Paul Young, a retired Caddo Parish juvenile court judge who opposes Murrill’s legislation. 

Other parts of the state would also feel the effects of the proposal. In some parts of Louisiana, city and parish courts handle cases with teenagers under 17. Like juvenile courts, their authority over 15- and 16-year-olds facing felony allegations would be transferred to district courts focused on adults if the bill passes. 

Critics say the public sent a clear message on moving minors into the adult criminal justice system in March. That’s when 66% of state voters rejected a constitutional amendment Gov. Jeff Landry backed that could have put 15- and 16-year-olds in adult prisons for a wider range of offenses.  

The bill doesn’t go quite as far as the amendment could have. Fifteen- and 16-year-olds would still be subjected to lighter juvenile punishments instead of adult sentences, but the senator’s aim is to put more teenagers in adult courts. 

But Seabaugh said he planned to file his bill before voters rejected the constitutional change.

“The bill is not a response to the amendment,” he said.

Instead, the legislation is a reaction to frustrations with juvenile court judges in New Orleans, according to Seabaugh and Murrill. They don’t believe those judges are giving out harsh enough sentences, and the gentler approach is contributing to a high crime rate. 

“The juvenile judges, particularly in Orleans Parish, are not doing their job,” Seabaugh said in an interview last week.

Murrill doubled down on Seabaugh’s concern about juvenile court judges in New Orleans. She said minors in the city are not being held responsible for offenses they commit.  

But the attorney general is also considering ways to soften the proposal with regards to juvenile judges in other parts of the state because, she said, there are those who are “doing a good job.” 

Murrill may ask for an amendment to the legislation to give district attorneys and her office the option to move a felony case involving a 15- or 16-year-old to district court instead of mandating an automatic transfer. The change would help address problems with juvenile court judges in New Orleans, she said, while not yanking cases from other judges who are performing effectively. 

State elected officials like Seabaugh and Murrill, who call for stricter criminal measures, like to emphasize New Orleans public safety challenges, even though the city has seen a dramatic decline in its crime rate over the past two years.

The New Orleans juvenile court judges also pushed back on Murrill and Seabaugh’s statements about their lack of effectiveness. Intake arrests for New Orleans minors were down by almost a third between 2023 and 2024, according to the New Orleans juvenile judges’ spokeswoman Yolanda Johnson.

“The Court is perplexed by the inaccuracies being presented that is not supported by data,” Johnson wrote in a prepared statement provided Tuesday. 

There is also broad consensus that rehabilitation provided in the juvenile system – as opposed to punishment provided in adult prisons – is especially effective for teenagers because their brains haven’t fully developed yet. 

“There are tons of studies that show that is the worst thing you can do and all it does is create another generation of criminals,” Jay Dixon, the former state public defender in Louisiana who now works in Massachusetts, said about the plan to put more minors in adult court.

”It is incredibly stupid and short-sighted,” Dixon said. 

But Seabaugh points out judges already handle criminal cases for minors and adults side by side in Louisiana’s smaller judicial districts. Rural courts, which have as few as two judges, don’t have the luxury of a specialty juvenile court. 

District courts with juvenile sections in Caddo, Orleans, Jefferson and East Baton Rouge parishes are already busy, however, and don’t have the capacity or facilities to take on a large influx of underage defendants, critics say. 

State laws require juvenile cases to be handled on a much faster timeline. Minors have to go to trial within three months of their arrest, whereas adult cases are allowed to languish for over a year, Young said.

Juvenile cases also require judges to meet in person with minor defendants every six months while they are incarcerated. By contrast, a district court judge often never sees an adult convicted of a crime after their sentencing, Young said.  

District judges in the four parishes with juvenile courts are overwhelmed by their current workloads. Moving several hundred cases onto their dockets would cause severe scheduling challenges, Young said.

“You can’t hold a child in limbo waiting for trial for upwards of a year or more,” he said.

District judges would also have to close their courtrooms every time they handle a juvenile case. Most hearings for adult defendants are open to the public, but juvenile cases have to be conducted in private.

Transporting more minors and holding them in the courthouses could also prove difficult. Federal law requires underage people to be driven to court independently of adult defendants. They also have to be kept in separate holding spaces while awaiting their hearings, and some courthouses aren’t equipped to house them independent of adults. 

District attorneys and public defenders might also be forced to hire more staff to cover juvenile cases. 

“From a volume perspective, it’s going to cause issues,” said Michelle AndrePont, who runs the public defender office in Caddo Parish.