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Specifically, I was wondering if you were
considering circumstances such as offenses
under the juvenile delinquency statutes
which are not normally considered as a
crime, proceedings under delinquency and
items of this nature.
(First Vice-President James Clark as-
sumed the Chair.)
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Kiefer.
DELEGATE KIEFER: Specifically, the
language that we have used is a broad
language quite similar to that of the
amendment, actually. It is Article 21 of
the present Declaration of Rights and the
6th Amendment.
Now, to answer your question specific-
ally, we are not able to tell you what ex-
actly it does cover. This is a matter where
the Supreme Court of the United States
has brought the Sixth Amendment over to
state action.
As you probably know, just recently it
held that juvenile delinquents were en-
titled to the same treatment as any other
accused and consequently, we are bound by
and with the interpretations of the Su-
preme Court.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Grant.
DELEGATE GRANT: I realize that.
But the question in my mind was whether
in using this language you intended to ex-
tend the Maryland section only so far as
traditional definitions of crime, accused of
a crime and were not including this fur-
ther sort of penumbra that was brought in
by the Fourteenth Amendment.
DELEGATE KIEFER: The Supreme
Court has indicated that this penumbra as
you call it, and which it has been called
actually, does apply to states and the case
involving the juvenile delinquents was an
Arizona case. It would equally apply to
Maryland by Supreme Court interpreta-
tion.
In other words, we are not trying to
write new language in or new interpreta-
tions into the State of Maryland criminal
law. What we are doing is making this
provision conform to as closely as possible
the Sixth Amendment of the federal Con-
stitution, and it is not unlike the present
Article 21 of our present Declaration of
Rights.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Grant.
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DELEGATE GRANT: Then may I ask
you, if it were to be in the reverse direc-
tion, assuming juvenile delinquency has
been brought under this definition, would
this prevent the Court of Appeals from
proceeding further in the case of defective
delinquents — delinquency of the compas-
sionate nature — or other incarcerations or
restraints due to mental illness, because of
the fact that the Supreme Court had not
indicated the "accused of crime" was to
extend to this type of proceeding?
DELEGATE KIEFER: Delegate Grant,
this is not intended to make new law or
change the existing criminal practice or
rights of the accused in the State of Mary-
land any differently from what they pres-
ently are.
It simply restates, as a personal right,
the matters covered by the Sixth Amend-
ment because the Sixth Amendment is ap-
plicable to states, and whether or not the
Supreme Court of the United States would
cover the situations you have covered, or
how our own Court of Appeals would in-
terpret the particular situation you de-
scribe is something I cannot answer, and
I do not think anybody else can, but it does
not change the basic concept of what we
are establishing. We are not attempting to
write new criminal procedures, but are
simply intending to restate in present-day
language, that is Sixth Amendment lan-
guage, the concepts of the rights of the
accused.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Grant.
DELEGATE GRANT: Then, as I under-
stand it, it extends at least as far as the
present federal interpretation or extension
of the Sixth Amendment, but it is not
necessarily limited to what the extension
of that amendment has been?
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Kiefer.
DELEGATE KIEFER: That is correct.
To answer further, it has to extend as
far as the federal Constitution, the federal
amendment as interpreted by the Supreme
Court, but our own court can make it more
broad if it wants to. This is not intended
to limit it.
DELEGATE GRANT: That would apply
even though the federal government was
later to retreat from their present exten-
sion of the Sixth Amendment?
DELEGATE KIEFER: That is correct.
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