State v. Nathaniel S., 323 Conn. 290

Summary

The Connecticut Supreme Court held that Public Act 15-183, which raised from fourteen to fifteen the age for automatic transfer of certain juvenile felony cases to the regular criminal docket, applies retroactively to pending cases. The court classified the amendment as procedural and concluded that no statutory language or considerations of good sense and justice overcame the presumption of retroactivity.

Holdings

1. Public Act 15-183 is procedural in nature because it changes the procedure for automatically transferring certain juvenile cases to the regular criminal docket rather than creating, defining, or regulating substantive rights.
2. A purely procedural change to the criminal law is presumptively retroactive, subject to the ex post facto clause and to considerations of good sense and justice.
3. Public Act 15-183 applies retroactively to pending cases, including the defendant's case, and the defendant's case must be transferred from the regular criminal docket back to the juvenile docket.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Public Act 15-183, which raised the age for automatic transfer of certain juvenile felony cases from fourteen to fifteen, applies retroactively to a pending case that had already been transferred to the regular criminal docket.
2. Whether the procedural nature of the amendment, statutory retroactivity presumptions, savings statutes, and considerations of good sense and justice require transfer of the defendant's pending case back to the juvenile docket.

Disposition

other