Commonwealth, Aplt. v. Taylor, N., 309 A.3d 754

Nazeer Taylor was charged in juvenile court (alleged offenses committed at age 15–17: sexual offenses) and a juvenile court held a certification hearing to decide transfer to adult criminal court.
At that hearing the juvenile court relied in part on Taylor’s refusal to admit guilt (his silence/denial) to conclude he was not amenable to juvenile treatment and certified the case to criminal court.
Taylor was tried as an adult, convicted, and sentenced; he raised a Fifth Amendment claim on appeal that his silence was impermissibly used at certification.
This Court in Commonwealth v. Taylor (Taylor II) held that a juvenile court may not consider a juvenile’s refusal to admit guilt in transfer/certification proceedings and remanded to determine whether that violation is structural error or subject to harmless-error review.
On remand the Superior Court held the Fifth Amendment violation was structural, and because Taylor had aged out of juvenile court jurisdiction (over 21), no court could conduct a new certification hearing under the Juvenile Act; it therefore vacated the conviction and discharged Taylor.
The Supreme Court affirmed: the juvenile court’s consideration of Taylor’s silence was structural error; no statutory authority permits a new certification now that Taylor is over 21, so discharge was the only available remedy.

Issue	Commonwealth's Argument	Taylor's Argument	Held
Whether a juvenile court’s reliance on a juvenile’s refusal to admit guilt at certification is structural error or subject to harmless-error review	Error is a trial-process error susceptible to harmless-error review because it affected only some statutory factors (culpability, amenability) and other factors supported transfer	Violation is fundamental, coercive ("Hobson’s choice"), affects framework of certification, thus structural and never harmless	Structural error: Court held the Fifth Amendment violation at certification is structural and not subject to harmless-error analysis
Appropriate remedy when certification is void and the juvenile has aged out (over 21): remand for a new certification (juvenile or criminal division) vs discharge	Remand to court of common pleas (criminal division) to reassess certification on the existing record without considering silence; criminal division can exercise jurisdiction under Pa. Const. art. V and Judicial Code	Juvenile court lost jurisdiction when Taylor turned 21; criminal division lacks statutory authority to conduct juvenile certification; discharge required	Remedy: vacate conviction and discharge. Statute confines certification authority to juvenile-division procedures for persons who are "children;" no statutory basis to conduct a new certification once individual has aged out, so dismissal is the only available remedy

Commonwealth v. Taylor, 230 A.3d 1050 (Pa. 2020) (Taylor II) (Pa. Supreme Court: Fifth Amendment protects juveniles in transfer proceedings)
Kent v. United States, 383 U.S. 541 (1966) (juvenile waiver/transfer procedures are critically important and juvenile-court failures cannot be presumed harmless)
Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18 (1967) (established standard for when constitutional errors may be deemed harmless)
Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279 (1991) (distinguished "trial" errors from "structural" errors)
Weaver v. Massachusetts, 137 S. Ct. 1899 (2017) (clarified nature and purpose of structural-error doctrine)
McCoy v. Louisiana, 138 S. Ct. 1500 (2018) (examples of structural error affecting trial framework)
Commonwealth v. Johnson, 669 A.2d 315 (Pa. 1995) (Juvenile Act vests limited and exclusive jurisdiction in juvenile division for juvenile matters)
Commonwealth v. Bethea, 379 A.2d 102 (Pa. 1977) (penalizing exercise of constitutional right is reversible error)
Commonwealth v. Lewis, 598 A.2d 975 (Pa. 1991) (no-adverse-inference instruction on defendant’s silence is per se reversible under state law)
In the Interest of J.M.G., 229 A.3d 571 (Pa. 2020) (statutory/constitutional errors in juvenile proceedings can be structural and not harmless)