News Archive

IU McKinney's Appellate Clinic won yet another successful decision on behalf of a client, this time one that involved a juvenile. The case is State of Indiana v. D.R., and it was decided February 13.

The defendant, D.R., was involved in a traffic accident on April 6, 2018, in which one of the drivers died. The State of Indiana filed a petition that D.R. was a delinquent, and wanted to waive him into criminal court so that he could be charged with two Level 5 felonies. The juvenile court denied that, and ordered that D.R. be placed in a residential treatment facility and enrolled in a high school equivalency program. D.R. had been removed from his mother's care when he was 8 years old and placed with his paternal grandparents, had been treated for mental illness several times, and had experienced homelessness after his grandmother died. He was working two jobs and had begun working on his GED before the accident. He had no juvenile record. The appellate court's ruling means D.R. will remain under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court.

"The difference between treatment in a juvenile court and punishment in an adult court is life-changing for our client, who will be able to live his life without the heavy weight of an adult felony conviction," said Professor Joel Schumm, '98. He teaches in the Appellate Clinic. He worked on the case with IU McKinney 3L evening division student Riley Parr.

Parr is enrolled in the Appellate Clinic for the Spring 2018 semester, but got an early start by helping with this case, Professor Schumm said. He was in Professor Schumm's juvenile justice class two summers ago and "did outstanding work on this first-of-its-kind case, which students will be reading and discussing this summer," the professor said.

"The Appellate Clinic offers the terrific opportunity to combine the theory and knowledge we learn in class with the practical experience of working with a client and handling a real appeal," Parr said. "Getting the result we did in this case is just icing on the cake."