A recent interview with Colorado Law Week has convinced me that it is time to make some fine distinctions. StopDirectFile.org supports empowering judges to decide if juveniles should be tried as adults. Filing adult charges is a practice that should be reserved to judges and used only in exceedingly rare cases, but should be a legal option for the worst juvenile offenders. StopDirectFile.org does not believe that juveniles should never be tried as adults.

In most states, the circumstances under which a juvenile can be charged as an adult are legally defined with minimum age requirements and a predetermined number of juvenile adjudications. The final decision about whether there is enough evidence to merit an adult trial rests with a judge or is, at least, subject to review by a judge upon going to trial.

In Colorado, the decision to file adult charges (based on statutory age, the nature of the crime and adjudication requirements) is left entirely up to the interpretation of a District Attorney. That’s a problem because a District Attorney is an elected official and a party to each juvenile case. They have a professional and political interest in prosecuting, not adjudicating, a child. That creates a natural conflict of interest when attempting to evaluate the evidence against a child before going to trial. A District Attorney is paid to presume a defendant’s guilt, while a judge is paid to balance public safety against a defendant’s rights.

In some ways, the direct file system makes the same person we’re paying to err on the side of guilt the judge, jury and executioner. Direct File gives the prosecutor undue leverage over the defense’s decision-making process.

For instance: As a prosecutor I can tell a juvenile defendant who I’m charging that unless he or she pleads guilty or provides testimony, I will prosecute him or her as an adult. In doing that, I am presuming guilt and forcing the defendant (whether they are guilty or not guilty) to weigh the consequences of an adult trial versus a juvenile trial.

That is not the way to get at justice for the state, the victims or the child. That’s a way to get a forced admission of guilt or biased testimony. Regardless of a District Attorney’s motive in direct filing adult charges against a child, the way it is used and its potential for abuse is wrong.