A Comprehensive Strength

In 2015, W. R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor Jessica Smith was the appointed reporter for the Criminal Investigation and Adjudication Committee of Chief Justice Mark Martin’s North Carolina Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice. Her role was to support the independent, multidisciplinary commission’s evaluation of the North Carolina judicial system and to make recommendations for improvement. Professor Smith’s research and analysis was critically important to legislative enactment of the “Raise the Age” bill, which raised the age of criminal responsibility to 18, thereby assuring that teenagers under age 18 can no longer proceed to adult criminal court without parental involvement.