Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/454/1004/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 04:06:32+00:00

Document:
No. 81-53 Supreme Court of the United States November 2, 1981 Rehearing Denied Jan. 11, 1982. See 454 U.S. 1165.
recovery of competency to stand trial. In my view, the decision rests on a serious misunderstanding of this Court's opinion in Jackson, supra. In light of the risk that the error will be repeated if not corrected, I would grant the petition.
dent both incompetent to stand trial and dangerous to himself and others. And on each such occasion, the trial court recommitted respondent to the state hospital.
The holding of the District Court of Appeal reflects other misconceptions about Jackson v. Indiana. Jackson turned largely on the contrast between Indiana's standards for commitment and release applicable to those committed solely because of their lack of capacity to stand trial and comparable standards governing civil commitment under two alternative state laws. The Court concluded that Jackson had been deprived of substantial rights to which he would have been entitled under either of the alternative commitment statutes. See 406 U.S., at 727-730-1854. Moreover, there was serious doubt that Jackson could have been committed, or kept long in confinement once committed, if judged according to those statutes. Ibid. The District Court of Appeal undertook no similar comparison in respondent's case.
recalled the decision in Greenwood v. United States, 350 U.S. 366 (1956), which upheld the pretrial commitment of a defendant under 18 U.S.C. 4244 to 4246, "even though there was little likelihood that he would ever become competent to stand trial." 406 U.S., at 732. The Court noted that Greenwood, unlike Jackson, had been found not only incompetent, but dangerous. Ibid. In addition, Greenwood, unlike Jackson, was entitled to release when no longer dangerous. Ibid. As the Court's discussion of federal law made clear, the constitutionality of indefinite commitment without an assessment of eventual capacity is dependent on the purposes for which commitment is ordered.
Footnote 1 On October 7, 1970, respondent was also charged with second-degree arson. Following his arraignment on that charge, a second judge, relying on the decision of the first, also found respondent incompetent to stand trial and ordered him committed to the state hospital. Both cases later were assigned to a single judge.
Footnote 2 If Jackson had purported to limit the power of the State to try an accused because of an unlawful pretrial commitment, it would have marked a drastic departure from the "established rule that illegal arrest or detention does not void a subsequent conviction." Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U.S. 103, 119, 865 (1975).
Footnote 3 "The States have traditionally exercised broad power to commit persons found to be mentally ill. . . . The bases that have been articulated include dangerousness to self, dangerousness to others, and the need for care or treatment or training. . . .
". . . It is clear that Jackson's commitment rests on proceedings that did not purport to bring into play, indeed did not even consider relevant, any of the articulated bases for exercise of Indiana's power of indefinite commitment. . . . At the least, due process requires that the nature and duration of commitment bear some reasonable relation to the purpose for which the individual is committed." Jackson v. Indiana, 406 U.S., at 736-738-1858 (footnote omitted).
Footnote 4 According to petitioner, respondent originally moved for an adjudication of insanity in reliance on the Rule at a competency hearing held in April 1973. Pet. for Cert. 7-8. The motion was denied and an appeal of the denial was subsequently dismissed. Garrett v. State, 283 So. 2d 905 (Fla.App.1973). Respondent apparently renewed the motion at competency hearings in June 1974, December 1975, October 1976, and March 1977.
Footnote 5 Even if respondent's suggestions were sufficiently plausible to reveal ambiguities in the court's opinion, at most they would counsel this Court to grant the petition, vacate the judgment, and remand for reconsideration in light of California v. Krivda, 409 U.S. 33 (1972).

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