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Miss. Code Ann. § 43-21-559

Evidence admissible

Known as the Youth Court Law

The act spans §§ 43–43 (102 sections).

Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case 574 So. 2d 1369 - In Interest of CB (1990)

Most recently applied in E.K. v. Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services (August 2018)

Laws, 1979, ch. 506, § 62; Laws, 2016, ch. 438, § 13, eff from and after July 1, 2016.

How often courts cite this section

199020002010201820
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) In arriving at its adjudicatory decision, the youth court shall consider only evidence which has been formally admitted at the adjudicatory hearing. All testimony shall be under oath and may be in narrative form. In proceedings to determine whether a child is a delinquent child or a child in need of supervision, the youth court shall admit any evidence that would be admissible in a criminal proceeding. In proceedings to determine whether a child is a neglected child or an abused child, the youth court shall admit any evidence that would be admissible in a civil proceeding.

(2) An out-of-court admission by the child, even if otherwise admissible, shall be insufficient to support an adjudication that the child is a delinquent child unless the admission is corroborated, in whole or in part, by other competent evidence.

(3) Members of the youth court staff may appear as witnesses except that no member of the youth court staff may testify as to an admission or confession made to him.

(4) No statements, admissions or confessions made by or incriminatory information obtained from a child in the course of a screening or assessment that is undertaken in conjunction with any proceedings under this chapter, including, but not limited to, that which is court-ordered, shall be admitted into evidence against the child on the issue of whether the child committed a delinquent act under this chapter or on the issue of guilt in any criminal proceedings.

(5) The provisions of paragraph (a) of this subsection are in addition to and do not override any existing statutory and constitutional prohibition on the admission into evidence in delinquency and criminal proceedings of information obtained during screening, assessment or treatment.

Current official text: Mississippi Code (LexisNexis). Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Mississippi statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.