## Facts

- A delinquency petition in the Juvenile Court of DeKalb County alleged K.M.S., age 12, was a delinquent child in need of treatment, rehabilitation, or supervision.
- The petition alleged K.M.S. unlawfully, and with malice aforethought, caused the death of Michael Anthony Street by stabbing him with a knife, conduct characterized in the petition as murder.
- Georgia’s criminal code provided that a person under 13 cannot be “considered or found guilty of a crime” based on the act at issue.
- The Juvenile Court Code defined a “delinquent act” as an act “designated a crime” by Georgia law and a “delinquent child” as a child who committed such an act and is in need of treatment, rehabilitation, or supervision.

## Issues

1. Whether a juvenile court may adjudicate a 12-year-old delinquent based on conduct designated a crime when the criminal code bars finding a person under 13 guilty of a crime.
2. Whether a petition alleging conduct that fits the statutory definition of a crime sufficiently alleges facts bringing a child under juvenile-court delinquency jurisdiction despite the age-based bar to criminal guilt.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals affirmed the juvenile court’s denial of the motion to dismiss the delinquency petition.
- The court held that the criminal code’s age-13 limitation addresses criminal guilt and punishment, not juvenile-court delinquency jurisdiction.
- The court concluded that conduct fitting the criminal-law definition of murder qualifies as an act “designated a crime” for delinquency purposes even if the child cannot be criminally convicted.

## Legal Principles

- Statutory incapacity to be found criminally guilty (based on age) does not bar juvenile-court adjudication for delinquency when the juvenile code authorizes intervention for acts designated as crimes.
- In delinquency statutes, the phrase “designated a crime” refers to the criminal-law classification of the conduct, not the actor’s capacity for criminal conviction.
- A delinquency petition is sufficient if it alleges facts showing conduct that falls within an act designated a crime, thereby invoking juvenile-court jurisdiction for remedial dispositions (treatment, rehabilitation, or supervision).

## Conclusion

A child under 13, though not subject to criminal conviction under Georgia’s age-based criminal-responsibility statute, may still be brought within juvenile-court delinquency jurisdiction based on allegations of conduct defined as a crime, and may be adjudicated delinquent and ordered into remedial supervision or treatment.


K.M.S. v. State, 200 S.E.2d 916 (Ga. Ct. App. 1973)