TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday that juveniles have a constitutional right to a jury trial, a surprise decision that could influence courts in other states and force local prosecutors to retry hundreds of open cases.

In a 6-1 decision, the court based its ruling partly on a provision of the Kansas Constitution that states defendants “in all prosecutions” are guaranteed a speedy jury trial.

“I would say it’s a landmark ruling,” said Tom Stanton, deputy Reno County district attorney and president of the Kansas association for local prosecutors. “It is going to be a shock to the system.”

The state’s high court said legislators have changed the juvenile justice system enough – getting tougher on young offenders – that differences between it and the adult system have “eroded.”

Courts generally have said for several decades that states aren’t required to have jury trials for juveniles, as they are for adult defendants, because juvenile justice systems are focused on rehabilitation. In Kansas, juvenile trials typically are handled by a judge, without a jury.

Ten states give juvenile defendants the right to a jury trial, while another 11, including Kansas, allow trials under limited circumstances. Kansas law says juveniles who plead not guilty to an offense are tried by a district court judge, though a judge has the power to grant a request for a jury trial.

The Kansas ruling is unusual because in 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court said juveniles don’t automatically have a right to a jury trial, and other states’ courts have refused to say it’s a constitutional right. In March, the Washington Supreme Court rejected the idea.

The ruling by the Kansas court could have far-reaching impact.

“We do hope that it sends a signal to other states that these rights should apply to youth,” said Jessica Feierman, an attorney for the Juvenile Law Center, a Philadelphia nonprofit group. “We’re really hoping that other courts will be looking to Kansas for this analysis.”

Kansas Attorney General Steve Six doesn’t plan to appeal because the decision is based partly on a provision of the Kansas Constitution.

The court’s majority acknowledged it could not find “total support” for its conclusions from rulings in other states.

But Justice Eric Rosen wrote: “We are undaunted in our belief that juveniles are entitled to the right to a jury trial guaranteed to all citizens under the Sixth and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution.”

The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to a speedy trial by an impartial jury. The 14th Amendment prevents states from abridging the rights guaranteed by the federal constitution.

The lone dissenter Friday was Chief Justice Kay McFarland, a former juvenile court judge. She cited the Washington decision, as well as rulings from Arkansas, California, Louisiana and Maine, and said the Kansas court’s majority had overstated the extent of changes in Kansas’ juvenile justice system.

The Kansas court ruled in a case involving a 16-year-old defendant who was sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile corrections center for aggravated sexual battery and possessing alcohol in August 2005.

The justices returned his case to district court for a new trial. But since his juvenile trial, the teenager has been indicted in federal court for identity theft and faces deportation, Finney County Attorney John Wheeler Jr. said.

The decision affects all pending juvenile cases and will apply to all those filed in the future, Kansas Supreme Court spokesman Ron Keefover said.

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On the Net:

Kansas Supreme Court: http://www.kscourts.org

AP-ES-06-20-08 2040EDT