Opinion ID: 891607
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Precluding Defendant From Being Criminally Committed is Sound Policy

Text: {34} Construing Section 31-9-1.6 as an expression of legislative intent that individuals that are dangerous, incompetent due to mental retardation, and without a substantial probability of gaining competence no longer be subject to criminal commitment under the NMMIC and instead only be civilly committed is consistent with the distinction between mental retardation and mental illness and society's evolving understanding of the nature of mental retardation. {35} The distinction between mental retardation and mental illness has long been incorporated into the Anglo-American legal system: differing treatment of idiots and lunatics is seen at least as far back as the thirteenth century. James W. Ellis & Ruth A. Luckasson, Mentally Retarded Criminal Defendants, 53 Geo. Wash. L.Rev. 414, 416 (1985). Mental retardation is not a mental illness. Id. at 423. While [m]entally ill people encounter disturbances in their thought processes and emotions[,] mentally retarded people have limited abilities to learn. Id. at 424. Another distinction is that mental retardation is largely immutable while mental illness is often episodic. Id. The practical significance of the permanence of mental retardation is that defendants incompetent due to mental retardation are less likely to be treated to competency than those incompetent due to mental illness, though there are cases where those with mild mental retardation may be treated to competency. Because mental retardation is inherently different than mental illness, the Legislature made a sound policy decision when it created a distinct mechanism for defendants incompetent due to mental retardation. {36} Society's understanding of mental retardation and its effect on criminal culpability is evolving. When the United States Supreme Court first addressed mental retardation in 1927, it did so in the context of rejecting equal protection and due process challenges to the involuntary sterilization of a woman with mental retardation. See Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200, 205, 47 S.Ct. 584, 71 L.Ed. 1000 (1927). The language in Buck is striking for its contempt of those with mental retardation, as well as its presumption of their criminality: [i]t is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. Id. at 207, 47 S.Ct. 584. {37} Since the time of Buck, the treatment of individuals with mental retardation by the legal system has demonstrated a maturing understanding of the disability and a concomitant recognition of the diminished culpability of criminal defendants with mental retardation. For example, in the landmark case of Atkins v. Virginia, the United States Supreme Court held that executing defendants with mental retardation violated the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. 536 U.S. 304, 321, 122 S.Ct. 2242, 153 L.Ed.2d 335 (2002); see also NMSA 1978, § 31-20A-2.1(B) (1991) (The penalty of death shall not be imposed on any person who is mentally retarded.); State v. Flores, 2004-NMSC-021, 135 N.M. 759, 93 P.3d 1264 (outlining the procedure by which to best effectuate Section 31-20A-2.1). The Atkins Court critically recognized that, [b]ecause of their disabilities in areas of reasoning, judgment, and control of their impulses,. . . [individuals with mental retardation] do not act with the level of moral culpability that characterizes the most serious adult criminal conduct. Atkins, 536 U.S. at 306, 122 S.Ct. 2242. It quoted with approval the dissenting opinion of the lower court: it is indefensible to conclude that individuals who are mentally retarded are not to some degree less culpable for their criminal acts. By definition, such individuals have substantial limitations not shared by the general population. Id. at 310, 122 S.Ct. 2242. {38} Commentators and experts agree that the presence of mental retardation creates substantive differences in causation [and] culpability. . . . John J. McGee & Frank J. Menolascino, The Evaluation of Defendants with Mental Retardation in the Criminal Justice System, in The Criminal Justice System and Mental Retardation 55, 55 (Ronald W. Conley ed., 1991). In this light, Section 31-9-1.6's requirement that Defendant be civilly and not criminally committed is a sound policy decision that reflects both the distinction between mental retardation and mental illness and the modern understanding of mental retardation. Section 31-9-1.6 is an incorporation of the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society. Atkins, 536 U.S. at 312, 122 S.Ct. 2242. {39} As a final point, we wish to address the fact that Section 31-9-1.6 is, by itself, not a comprehensive legislative scheme. It is critical that, where Section 31-9-1.6 is silent, the previously applicable law, the NMMIC, applies. For example, before the procedures envisaged by Section 31-9-1.6 may be executed, it is necessary to first proceed through the mechanism of Sections 31-9-1.1 to -1.3 to allow for, inter alia, an evaluation, a hearing, a determination of competency, and an inquiry into whether there is a substantial probability of attaining competency. This procedure is the optimal mechanism for treating the NMMIC and Section 31-9-1.6 as harmonious instead of contradictory. See Muniz, 2003-NMSC-021, ¶ 14, 134 N.M. 152, 74 P.3d 86. Our Opinion shall not be read to reduce the procedural protections available to defendants incompetent due to mental retardation to fewer than what is guaranteed those defendants incompetent for other reasons. Our holding is limited to the conclusion that Section 31-9-1.6 was intended to preclude the criminal commitment of defendants that are dangerous, incompetent due to mental retardation, without a substantial probability of gaining competence, and accused of a crime other than those listed in Section 31-9-1.6(C).