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Juvenile Offenses can
make Firearm Possession Illegal as an Adult
By Dan Trevas
August 15, 2018
The state may criminalize firearm possession by adults who were
adjudicated delinquent for committing certain crimes as juveniles, the
Ohio Supreme Court ruled today, upholding a man’s conviction on that
basis.
In a 6-1 decision, the Supreme Court found there was no violation of
Anthony Carnes’ constitutional due process rights when he was convicted
of having a weapon under disability. The “disability” was a 1994
adjudication of delinquency for committing felonious assault. Writing
for the Court majority, Justice Mary DeGenaro wrote that R.C. 2923.13 —
the weapons-under-disability law — lists several reasons short of an
adult criminal conviction that allow the state to prevent a person from
carrying a firearm, including a juvenile adjudication.
The Court affirmed the decision of the Hamilton County-based First
District Court of Appeals. Justices Patrick F. Fischer, and R. Patrick
DeWine, former First District judges, recused themselves from the case
as did Justice Sharon L. Kennedy.
Justice DeGenaro’s opinion was joined by Justices Terrence O’Donnell
and Judith L. French. Ninth District Judge Lynne S. Callahan, and Tenth
District Judges William A. Klatt and Lisa L. Sadler, sitting for the
recused justices, also joined the opinion.
Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor dissented, writing she would find the
use of a juvenile adjudication as an element of an adult’s disability
unconstitutional. She stated that having the consequences of a juvenile
act follow the person into adulthood without any time limit was
“profoundly unfair.”
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