## Facts

- L.M., age 16, was charged in juvenile offender proceedings with aggravated sexual battery and minor in possession of alcohol.
- L.M. requested a jury trial.
- The district court denied the request under statutes providing for a bench trial and leaving jury trial to judicial discretion.
- After a bench trial, the court adjudicated L.M. a juvenile offender on both counts.
- The court imposed a serious-offender disposition including a stayed correctional facility placement, probation to age 20, sex-offender treatment, and sex-offender registration requirements.
- The Court of Appeals affirmed; L.M. sought further review only on the jury-trial issue.

## Issues

1. Whether Kansas juvenile offender proceedings are sufficiently criminal in character that juveniles have a jury-trial right under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments.
2. Whether Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights § 10 (“all prosecutions”) guarantees juveniles a jury trial in juvenile offender proceedings.
3. If a jury-trial right is recognized, whether it applies retroactively or only to cases pending on direct review or not yet final.

## Decision

- The Kansas Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and the district court.
- The court held juveniles have a constitutional right to a jury trial in juvenile offender proceedings under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments.
- The court separately held juveniles have a jury-trial right under Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights § 10 because such proceedings fall within “all prosecutions.”
- The court treated the jury-trial right as a new procedural rule and limited its application to cases pending on direct review or not yet final when the opinion was filed.
- Because L.M. requested a jury trial and was tried to the court, his adjudication was reversed.

## Legal Principles

- When a jurisdiction’s juvenile offender system operates with criminal attributes—state-initiated charges based on criminal statutes, exposure to confinement, and penal-type consequences—the jury-trial guarantee for “criminal prosecutions” applies under the Sixth Amendment as incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment.
- Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights § 10 extends the jury-trial right to proceedings that function as prosecutions, including juvenile offender adjudications with punitive potential.
- Recognition of a jury-trial right in juvenile offender proceedings was classified as a new rule of procedure in Kansas and applies only to cases not yet final as of the decision date.

## Conclusion

Kansas juvenile offender proceedings were held sufficiently criminal to require jury trials upon request under both the federal and state constitutions; the rule was applied prospectively to cases still pending or not yet final, and L.M.’s bench-trial adjudication was reversed.


In re L.M., 186 P.3d 164 (Kan. 2008)