State v. Dubois

CALOGERO, Justice.

We granted writs in this matter to consider whether a sixteen year old defendant’s emancipation by marriage serves to change her status from that of a juvenile to that of an adult so that she may be prosecuted in the criminal courts of this state.

Defendant Dorothy Cobb Dubois was charged by bill of information with “disturbing the peace by being drunk in public” on January 14, 1976. At the time of her arraignment defendant informed the trial court that she was only sixteen years of age, having been born on July 17, 1959, but that she was married. She objected to her…