State v. Engler

The Youthful Offenders Act was established by the 1975 legislature to provide “. . . an alternative to procedures in the criminal code relating to conviction and sentencing” of persons between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one years. 1 Under this Act a defendant who is found guilty of a felony other than first-degree murder and who is determined by the trial court to be a “. . . person who will benefit and society will not be harmed by disposition as a youthful offender,” is declared by the court to be a youthful offender. 2 Once such determination and declaration of status has been made,…