In re Gault

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1 (1967) was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision which established that under the Fourteenth Amendment, juveniles accused of crimes must be accorded the same due process rights as adults.

[edit] Case Background

The mother of Arizona resident Gerald Francis Gault, aged 15, returned home one day to find him missing and sent his older brother to look for him. The brother discovered that Gerald had been taken into custody by the local police, following a complaint by a neighbor named Mrs. Cook that someone, whom they believed was Gerald and his friend, had made obscene and threatening phone calls.