Pennsylvania Juvenile Defenders

Website made possible with the generous support of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Northeast Regional Defender Center

In order to increase the capacity of the grassroots juvenile defense bar across the country, the National Center incorporated into its design the development of nine Regional Defender Centers. The Northeast Region includes the following four states: Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Helpful Links

Juvenile Law Center
National Juvenile Defender Center
The Juvenile Act of PA

State and Local Defender Sites

U.S. Supreme Court Bans Death Penalty for Juveniles

ACBA members react as juvenile death penalty is outlawed by high court
by Tracy Carbasho
The Lawyers Journal

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to outlaw the juvenile death penalty created sharp dissension among the justices, but is widely viewed by the public as the only logical ruling that could have been made in a civilized society. “I personally believe the decision is significant because it states that our highest court in the country recognizes that it is wrong to kill juveniles,” said Mark Waitlevertch, supervisor of the Juvenile Division of the Office of the Public Defender of Allegheny County.
[more]

Supreme Court strikes down death penalty for juveniles
By Hope Yen
Associated Press

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Constitution forbids the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes, ending a practice used in 19 states.

The 5-4 decision throws out the death se
ntences of about 70 juvenile murderers and bars states from seeking to execute minors for future crimes. [more]

Supreme Court strikes down death penalty for juveniles
By Peter Jackson
Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Pennsylvania was one of 19 states that allowed minors to be sentenced to death until the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the practice Tuesday, but the state’s criminal justice system has long treated death row as an extreme last resort for punishing young offenders, legal analysts said.

Of the 222 murderers on Pennsylvania’s death row as of Feb. 1, only two committed their crimes before they turned 18 and can now expect to see their sentences reduced to life without parole. In other states, 70 inmates fall into that category. [more]

Juvenile executions ruling affects three
By Mike Bucsko
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pennsylvania has three men on death row who committed murders as juveniles, but only two are facing the death penalty.

The third inmate, Harvey Robinson of Allentown, had his death sentence for a 1992 juvenile homicide thrown out, but Robinson still faces the death penalty for another murder in 1993, when he was an adult. He is also serving a separate life sentence for a third murder, also in 1993.

Robinson and Kevin Hughes and Percy Lee, the two men sentenced to death for murders they committed as juveniles, are in the capital case unit at the maximum security State Correctional Institution Greene in Waynesburg. They are among 222 inmates on death row in Pennsylvania. [more]