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State v. Green7/30/1998
plicable part: (a) If probable cause is found and transfer to superior court is not required by G.S. 7A-608, the prosecutor or the juvenile may move that the case be transferred to the superior court for trial as in the case of adults. The Judge may proceed to determine whether the needs of the juvenile or the best interest of the State will be served by transfer of the case to superior court for trial as in the case of adults. When the case is transferred to superior court, the superior court has jurisdiction over that felony, any offense based on the same act or transaction or on a series of acts or transactions connected together or constituting parts of a single scheme or plan of that felony, and any greater or lesser included offense of that felony.
N.C.G.S. ยง 7A-610(a) (1995) (emphasis added). The decision to transfer a juvenile's case to superior court lies solely within the sound discretion of the juvenile court Judge and is not subject to review absent a showing of gross abuse of discretion. In re Bunn, 34 N.C. App. 614, 615-16, 239 S.E.2d 483, 484 (1977).
It is an essential element of due process of law that statutes contain sufficiently definite criteria to govern a court's exercise of discretion. Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 108-09, 33 L. Ed. 2d 222, 227-28 (1972). As stated by the Supreme Court, " iscretion without a criterion for its exercise is authorization of arbitrariness." Brown v. Allen, 344 U.S. 443, 496, 97 L. Ed. 469, 509 (1953). In construing whether a statute contains sufficient criteria to avoid being unconstitutionally vague, this Court applies well-established rules of statutory construction:
In passing upon the constitutionality of the statute, we begin with the presumption that it is constitutional and must be so held unless it is in conflict with some constitutional provision of the State or Federal Constitutions. A well recognized rule in this State is that, where a statute is susceptible to two interpretations--one constitutional and one unconstitutional--the Court should adopt the interpretation resulting in a finding of constitutionality.
Criminal statutes must be strictly construed. But, while a criminal statute must be strictly construed, the courts must nevertheless construe it with regard to the evil which it is intended to suppress. The intent of the legislature controls the interpretation of a statute. When the language of a statute is clear and unambiguous, there is no room for judicial construction and the courts must give the statute its plain and definite meaning, and are without power to interpolate, or superimpose, provisions and limitations not contained therein. But when a statute is ambiguous or unclear in its meaning, resort must be had to judicial construction to ascertain the legislative will, and the courts will interpret the language to give effect to the legislative intent. As this Court said in State v. Partlow, 91 N.C. 550[, 552] (1884), the legislative intent ". . . is to be ascertained by appropriate means and indicia, such as the purposes appearing from the statute taken as a whole, the phraseology, the words ordinary or technical, the law as it prevailed before the statute, the mischief to be remedied, the remedy, the end to be accomplished, statutes in pari materia, the preamble, the title, and other like means. . . ." Other indicia considered by this Court in determining legislative intent are the legislative history of an act and the circumstances surrounding its adoption, earlier statutes on the same subject, the common law as it was understood at the time of the enactment of the statute, and previous interpretations of the same or similar statutes.
In re Banks, 295 N.C. 236, 23
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