Opinion ID: 2166967
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Recovery Proceeding

Text: Once a person has been adjudicated sexually dangerous, that person may file, at any time, an application showing that he has recovered and requesting release. 725 ILCS 205/9 (West 1998). When such an application is filed, the psychiatrist, sociologist, psychologist and warden of the institution where the applicant is confined must prepare a socio-psychiatric report concerning the applicant. 725 ILCS 205/9 (West 1998). Section 9 of the Act states, An application in writing setting forth facts showing that such sexually dangerous person or criminal sexual psychopathic person has recovered may be filed before the committing court. Upon receipt thereof, the clerk of the court shall cause a copy of the application to be sent to the Director of the Department of Corrections. The Director shall then cause to be prepared and sent to the court a socio-psychiatric report concerning the applicant.    The court shall set a date for the hearing upon such application and shall consider the report so prepared under the direction of the Director of the Department of Corrections and any other relevant information submitted by or on behalf of such applicant. If the patient is found to be no longer dangerous, the court shall order that he be discharged. 725 ILCS 205/9 (West 1998). We note that both the commitment and recovery proceedings involve the paramount factual issue of the mental condition of the defendant; both involve his liberty. Olmstead, 32 Ill.2d at 313, 205 N.E.2d 625. The first proceeding, the commitment of the defendant as a sexually dangerous person, deprives the defendant of his liberty. The second proceeding, the recovery phase, gives a defendant applying for recovery a chance to regain his freedom. In Olmstead, this court decided the issue of whether section 5 of the Act, the right to demand a jury trial and the appointment of counsel in the commitment proceeding, applies to a defendant who files an application for recovery under section 9 of the Act. The defendant, in Olmstead, was adjudicated sexually dangerous pursuant to the Act and the trial court dismissed his application for recovery before appointing counsel and granting the defendant a jury trial. In determining whether the trial court erred in striking the defendant's application for recovery, we concluded that in devising the statute, the legislature    intended the right to counsel and a jury to apply to both the original petition proceedings and the application for discharge. (Emphasis added.) Olmstead, 32 Ill.2d at 313, 205 N.E.2d 625. In Capoldi, we reiterated the principle that persons proceeding under the Act must be accorded the same procedural safeguards that are available to a defendant in a criminal trial. In Capoldi, the defendant filed an application for recovery under section 9 of the Act that the trial court dismissed without a hearing. We noted that once the application has been filed, the court shall set a date for the hearing and concluded that upon filing of the application for recovery, the trial court should have held a hearing to determine if the defendant had recovered. Capoldi, 37 Ill.2d at 18, 225 N.E.2d 634. We further held that at the recovery hearing, the defendant is entitled to a court-appointed attorney and the right to demand a trial by jury pursuant to section 5 of the Act. Capoldi, 37 Ill.2d at 18, 225 N.E.2d 634. Because both the commitment proceeding and the recovery proceeding implicate a defendant's liberty interest, we have continuously emphasized in Olmstead and its progeny that the legislature, in enacting the Act, clearly intended section 5 of the Act to apply both at the commitment proceeding and the recovery proceeding. Olmstead, 32 Ill.2d at 313, 205 N.E.2d 625; accord People v. Shiro, 52 Ill.2d 279, 282, 287 N.E.2d 708 (1972) (when a defendant files an application for recovery, he must be granted a jury trial if so requested). With these crucial principles in mind, we next turn to a review of the burden of proof during the proceedings under the Act.