## Facts

- In 1940, Jackie Harris, age 14, faced a murder charge in California.
- A juvenile court held a hearing to decide whether to waive juvenile jurisdiction so Harris could be tried as an adult.
- Harris was not represented by counsel at the waiver hearing, and the record did not show he was informed of any right to counsel.
- The juvenile court found Harris unfit for juvenile proceedings and waived jurisdiction.
- In superior court, counsel was appointed; Harris pleaded guilty and was later sentenced to life imprisonment.
- After the Supreme Court held in *Kent* that juvenile waiver is a critical stage requiring due process and counsel, Harris sought habeas relief arguing *Kent* should apply to his 1940 waiver hearing.
- A federal district court granted habeas relief based on Ninth Circuit precedent treating *Kent* as retroactive and viewing an uncounseled waiver as invalidating adult-court jurisdiction.

## Issues

1. Whether *Kent*’s due process and counsel requirements for juvenile waiver hearings apply retroactively on federal habeas review to a long-final conviction.
2. Whether an uncounseled juvenile waiver hearing, judged under later-announced *Kent* standards, renders the adult court’s conviction void for lack of jurisdiction.
3. Whether reliance interests and disruption to the administration of justice counsel against retroactive application of *Kent* in collateral attacks.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, reversed the district court’s grant of habeas relief.
- The court declined to apply *Kent* with full retroactive effect to Harris’s 1940 juvenile waiver proceeding in a federal habeas challenge to a long-final conviction.
- The court rejected the view that a *Kent*-defective waiver hearing retroactively negates the adult court’s jurisdiction and voids the conviction.
- Certiorari was denied.

## Legal Principles

- Under Supreme Court retroactivity doctrine, a new constitutional rule is more likely to apply retroactively when its major purpose is to correct defects that substantially impair the truth-finding function and cast doubt on the accuracy of past guilty verdicts.
- *Kent* principally regulates fairness and procedural regularity in the juvenile transfer decision, rather than the reliability of guilt determinations; this weighs against full retroactivity on collateral review.
- Federal habeas retroactivity analysis may consider state reliance interests and the disruptive effect of reopening settled convictions.
- Defects in juvenile waiver procedures, as measured by later constitutional standards, are not necessarily treated as retroactively eliminating the adult court’s power to adjudicate and sentence.

## Conclusion

The en banc Ninth Circuit held that *Kent* does not apply with full retroactive force on federal habeas to invalidate long-final adult convictions based solely on an uncounseled juvenile waiver hearing, and it reversed the order granting Harris habeas relief.


Harris v. Procunier, 498 F.2d 576 (9th Cir. 1974) (en banc)