State v. Williams

OPINION

HENRY, Justice.

It was the sole purpose and intent of this appeal to present for resolution the single and significant issue of whether a non-lawyer juvenile judge may constitutionally incarcerate a juvenile or deprive him of his liberty.

The Court of Appeals, in a scholarly opinion by Judge Drowota, with Judge Todd dissenting, held:

[tjhat because a reasonable likelihood of prejudice exists when lay judges preside over juvenile proceedings resulting in incarceration, the fundamental fairness required by the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment of the federal *896constitution and…