North Carolina Gov. Cooper vetoes bill that would have required more juveniles to be tried as adults
Fox News
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a bill that would have required more minors accused of serious crimes to automatically be tried in adult court.
House Bill 834 passed the House and Senate with significant bipartisan support before the veto from Cooper, who sided with critics of the measure who warned the changes scale back the provisions of the 2019 "Raise the Age" law that ended a mandate that children of ages 16 and 17 be tried in the adult criminal justice system.
The opposition to automatically prosecuting children in adult court was considered a way to help more young people avoid public, lifetime criminal records for one-time mistakes, while also giving them access to youth-centered resources within the juvenile system, which does not make records public.