Opinion ID: 436010
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Burden of Proof in the Habeas Corpus Proceedings

Text: 24 Williams argues that the state may not require the acquittee to prove his fitness for release by a preponderance of the evidence, as Alabama does at the Ala.Code Sec. 15-21-3 habeas proceeding. 25 In Benham v. Edwards, 678 F.2d 511 (5th Cir.1982) (Unit B), vacated, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 3565, 77 L.Ed.2d 1406 (1983), this court held on due process grounds that the state could not place the burden of proof at a release hearing on the insanity acquittee. Id. at 541. Benham relied on Addington v. Texas, 441 U.S. 418, 99 S.Ct. 1804, 60 L.Ed.2d 323 (1979), which held that the state bears the burden at civil commitment hearings to prove mental illness or dangerousness by clear and convincing evidence. Benham found no satisfactory ground to distinguish the commitment of civil committees and insanity acquittees, and therefore held that Addington required the state to meet the same standard of proof at the commitment hearing of insanity acquittees. The Benham court then held that due process required the same standard of proof at acquittee release hearings because the court could not discern a sufficient difference between the initial [commitment] hearing and the release hearing to justify a placement of the burden of proof different from that required by Addington. 678 F.2d at 541. 26 Subsequently, however, the Supreme Court vacated Benham in light of Jones v. United States, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 3043, 77 L.Ed.2d 694 (1983). Jones holds that Addington does not extend to the initial commitment of insanity acquittees; instead, an acquittee may be automatically committed for an indefinite period of time after he has proved at his criminal trial by a preponderance of the evidence that mental illness caused his criminal act. 27 Jones does not address the appropriate burden of proof at release proceedings for insanity acquittees. --- U.S. at ---- n. 11, 103 S.Ct. at 3049 n. 11. Therefore, Jones does not directly invalidate the conclusion reached in Benham that the state must bear the burden at acquittee release proceedings to prove continued mental illness or dangerousness by clear and convincing evidence. Nonetheless, we must reevaluate this conclusion because it flowed directly from Benham 's conclusion that the state bore the same burden at acquittee commitment proceedings, a conclusion that Jones did invalidate. 28 In reexamining whether a state may place the burden of proof on the acquittee at a release proceeding, we first note the context in which the issue arises in this case. Alabama's release system is not one in which the only avenue of release is an adversary proceeding at which the acquittee must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he is no longer mentally ill or dangerous. In Alabama, the release decision is first addressed in the nonadversary proceedings described above, and the final release decision can be, and most often is, made at this level by the hospital professionals. At these nonadversary proceedings, the acquittee does not bear the burden of proof, and the mental health system's institutional goal of transfer to a less restrictive environment and eventual release has a logical tendency to favor release. The Alabama habeas corpus proceeding at which the acquittee bears the burden of proof is a secondary or backup procedure, a safeguard. It is available to rectify any error that might have occurred during the initial nonadversary review. 29 The fact that every release decision is first addressed in the favorable nonadversary proceeding significantly reduces the risk of an erroneous decision denying release. Alabama's release scheme in which the acquittee bears the burden of proof in the habeas corpus part of the proceedings thus entails little risk of erroneous deprivation of an acquittee's liberty, far less than, for example, a scheme in which the proceedings are totally adversarial and in which the acquittee must prove his fitness for release at every decisional level. 6 30 The probative value of the additional safeguard of placing the burden of proof on the state in the Alabama habeas proceeding would not be great. It would not affect the availability of evidence at the habeas hearing. Although in most cases the state will control the relevant evidence, the habeas petitioner can subpoena these witnesses under Ala.Code Sec. 15-21-15. 31 The placement of the burden of proof will affect the outcome of the habeas proceeding only when the evidence is in equipoise. In this situation we think that the state's interest in preventing the premature release of individuals who have already proven their dangerousness to society by committing a criminal act outweighs the interest in avoiding continued confinement of an acquittee who has already had the benefit of the hospital's nonadversary proceedings. See Hickey v. Morris, 722 F.2d 543, 549 (9th Cir.1983). Releasing someone who has been proven dangerous, when it has not been proved that he has recovered, poses a real threat of danger to society. On the other hand, the consequences of continued confinement for the individual, although a serious deprivation of liberty, are ameliorated by some countervailing factors. He will benefit from the continued treatment he will receive, and he will be released as soon as the hospital's trained medical professionals consider that he is no longer mentally ill or dangerous, or as soon as he can prove the same in a habeas corpus proceeding. 32 Given these considerations, we conclude that in the context of Alabama's total release scheme, due process does not forbid placing the burden of proof on the acquittee at the habeas proceeding to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he is no longer mentally ill or dangerous.