In Re Gault

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In Re Gault 387 U.S. 1 (1967) Prior History of the Case in the Lower Courts Fifteen year old Gerald Gault was heard on charges of making “lewd telephone calls .After a hearing by a juvenile court in Arizona and sentenced as a juvenile delinquent to the State Industrial School he appealed his case to the state court, challenged the constitutionality of the Arizona Juvenile Code concerning habeas corpus and procedure. The Supreme Court of Arizona affirmed dismissal of the writ stating that Gault’s due process rights were not offended by the procedures. The case was then appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Facts of the Case Gerald Gault and Ronald Lewis were taken into custody. Gerald was still on a six month probation order from being in the company of a boy who had stolen a wallet from a lady’s purse. Police action was taken from the result of verbal complaints by a neighbor of the two boys, Mrs. Cook, concerning telephone calls made to her, where the callers made lewd or indecent remarks. When Gerald was picked up by the police, both of his parents were at work, neither of them were notified of their son being taken into custody. When Gerald’s parents learned their son was being kept in a Detention Home and visited, they were unable to take him home, but later there was no explanation in the record as to why he was kept in the Detention Home or why he was released. At the trail the complainant Mrs. Cook was not there. Gerald Gault admitted making one of these lewd statements. At the second hearing it was agreed that Gerald did not admit making the lewd remarks. The complainant was not present. Gerald was listed with charges of “Lewd Phone Calls” and “committed as a juvenile delinquent to the State Industrial School for the period of his minority, unless sooner discharged by due process of law. A petition for a writ of habeas

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