Opinion ID: 2368807
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Substantive Due Process, Vagueness, and Overbreadth

Text: Appellant also asserts that the pretrial detention statute violates substantive due process by denying bail pending trial and is both unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. These contentions have no merit and may be dismissed with little discussion.
Substantive due process requires that when fundamental rights are involved, the state may limit such rights by regulation only upon a showing of a compelling state interest. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 93 S.Ct. 705, 35 L.Ed.2d 147 (1973). The Supreme Court has identified only a limited number of such fundamental rights, such as the right to vote, the right to travel, the right to privacy concerning decisions of intimacy and procreation, as well as rights expressly guaranteed by the Constitution. See Whalen v. Roe, 429 U.S. 589, 97 S.Ct. 869, 51 L.Ed.2d 64 (1977); Roe v. Wade, supra ; Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U.S. 330, 92 S.Ct. 995, 31 L.Ed.2d 274 (1972); Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618, 89 S.Ct. 1322, 22 L.Ed.2d 600 (1969). See generally W. LaFave & A. Scott, Criminal Law ง 20, at 138; L. Tribe, supra งง 11-1 to -4. Regardless of whether the right to bail is characterized as fundamental or not, the legislative history provides ample support for a compelling state interest in the pretrial detention of the narrow class of persons covered by the statute. Congress considered (1) the alarming increase in street crime in the District of Columbia since 1966; (2) statistical studies involving recidivism by persons while on pretrial release; (3) recommendations by the President's Commission on Crime in the District of Columbia (1966), and the Judicial Council Committee to Study the Operation of the Bail Reform Act in the District of Columbia (1969); and (4) pretrial release and detention practices in England and other countries. H.R.Rep.No.91-907, 91st Cong., 2d Sess. 87-94 (1970). Appellant attempts to litigate what are essentially legislative findings, i. e., the extent of crime committed by persons released pending trial and the predictability of criminal conduct, citing studies which reached different statistical results [45] than those relied upon by Congress. These are matters properly committed to the legislative process. Pretrial detention clearly has a substantial relation to preventing injury to the public and thus falls within the scope of Congress' power to legislate for the District of Columbia. See Palmore v. United States, 411 U.S. 389, 93 S.Ct. 1670, 36 L.Ed.2d 342 (1973); United States v. Sharpnack, 355 U.S. 286, 294, 78 S.Ct. 291, 296, 2 L.Ed.2d 282 (1958).
In support of his contention that the pretrial detention statute is impermissibly overbroad, appellant also cites statistical studies concluding that criminal conduct generally cannot be predicted. The doctrine of constitutional overbreadth applies to statutes that sweep unnecessarily broadly and thereby substantially impinge on constitutionally-protected conduct as well as conduct subject to governmental regulation. See Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U.S. 601, 93 S.Ct. 2908, 37 L.Ed.2d 830 (1973); Aptheker v. Secretary of State, 378 U.S. 500, 508, 84 S.Ct. 1659, 1664, 12 L.Ed.2d 992 (1964); L. Tribe, supra, งง 12-24 to -25. The doctrine has no application to the pretrial detention statute as it applies only to conduct which is constitutionally regulable, i. e., the detainee must be charged with the commission of a dangerous crime, D.C.Code 1973, ง 23-1322(a)(1), or a crime of violence, id. ง 23-1322(a)(2), which the judicial officer finds with substantial probability was committed by the accused. Moreover, the statute also requires a finding that there is no condition or combination of conditions of release which will reasonably assure the safety of any other person or the community, id. ง 23-1322(b)(2), which thus prohibits pretrial detention if less restrictive alternatives are available in the individual case to effect the government's interest in protecting the community. Prediction of the likelihood of certain conduct necessarily involves a margin of error, but is an established component of our pretrial release system. Trial judges have been engaged in predicting the likelihood of flight for all defendants, capital and noncapital, and have predicted the likelihood of recidivism for capital offenses since the Judiciary Act of 1789. See Wright v. United States, D.C. App., 262 A.2d 350, 351, n.4 (1970); Russell v. United States, 131 U.S.App.D.C. 44, 402 F.2d 185 (1968). Appellant's argument relies on the assumptions, which we do not share, that the judicial prediction of dangerousness, as distinguished from the prediction of likelihood of flight, is both a denial of a fundamental right and the imposition of punishment. Accordingly, we decline to find the statute unconstitutionally overbroad.
Appellant also asserts that the statute is impermissibly vague. The Supreme Court stated in Lanzetta v. New Jersey, 306 U.S. 451, 59 S.Ct. 618, 83 L.Ed. 888 (1939): [A] statute which either forbids or requires the doing of an act in terms so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application, violates the first essential of due process of law. Id. at 453, 59 S.Ct. at 619 (quoting Connally v. General Construction Co., 269 U.S. 385, 391, 46 S.Ct. 126, 127, 70 L.Ed. 322 (1925)). The statute is not tested in the abstract, however; vagueness challenges must be examined in light of the facts of the case at hand. United States v. Mazurie, 419 U.S. 544, 550, 95 S.Ct. 710, 714, 42 L.Ed.2d 706 (1975), quoted in Willcher v. United States, D.C. App., 408 A.2d 67, 73 (1979). It is true that Congress left the meaning of past conduct supporting a finding of dangerousness under D.C.Code 1973, งง 23-1321(b), -1322(b)(2)(B), to the sound judgment of the judicial officer, see H.R.Rep.No.91-1303, 91st Cong., 2d Sess. 240 (1970). However, the crimes with which appellant was charged and the crimes which he admits he committed in the space of four months preceding his arrestโa rape, a sodomy, two burglaries, and seventeen robberiesโas well as the adjudication of his juvenile social file, are all prohibited conduct under concededly valid criminal laws. [46] Nor can there be any doubt as to the meaning of safety of the community in this context. D.C.Code 1973, ง 23-1322(1). In sum, we hold that the challenged provisions of the District of Columbia pretrial detention statute, D.C.Code 1973, ง 23-1322, are constitutional. [47]