Court Opinion

ID: 9457455
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:22:23.131253+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:21.454134
License: Public Domain

MacKINNON, Circuit Judge:
I concur in the result but wish to set forth some additional views.
In 1948 Congress enacted the Sexual Psychopath Act for the District of Columbia providing for the indeterminate commitment of sexual psychopaths until cured. This Act defined a sexual psychopath to mean:
* * * a person, not insane, who by a course of repeated misconduct in sexual matters has evidenced such lack of power to control his sexual impulses as to be dangerous to other persons because he is likely to attack or otherwise inflict injury, loss, pain, or other evil on the objects of his desire.1 (Emphasis added.)
D.C.Code § 22-3503, 62 Stat. 347.
Under the statute the indeterminate commitment of such persons could be obtained through court proceedings initiated by the United States Attorney in the United States District Court of the District of Columbia by the filing of a statement in writing setting forth the facts tending to show that such person is a sexual psychopath (D.C.Code § 22-3504). Such persons are afforded counsel at every stage of the proceeding (D. C.Code § 22-3505) and two qualified psychiatrists are appointed by the court to make an examination of any person charged, who is defined and considered as a “patient” (D.C.Code § 22-3506). The result of the psychiatric examination is filed with the court and in the event that
both psychiatrists state that the patient is a sexual psychopath, or if both state that they are unable to reach any conclusion by reason of the partial or complete refusal of the patient to submit to thorough examination, or if one states that the patient is a sexual *1025psychopath and the other states that he is unable to reach any conclusion by reason of the partial or complete refusal of the patient to submit to thorough examination, then the court [D. C.Code § 22-3507]
conducts a hearing to determine whether the patient is a sexual psychopath (D.C. Code § 22-3508). Such hearing is conducted by the court without a jury unless a jury is demanded by the patient or the United States Attorney. The usual rules of evidence applicable to judicial proceedings apply and if the “patient” is determined to be a sexual psychopath the statute provides that “the court shall commit him to Saint Elizabeths Hospital to be confined there until” such time as the Superintendent of Saint Elizabeths Hospital
finds that he has sufficiently recovered so as to not be dangerous to other persons, provided if the person to be released be one charged with crime or undergoing sentence therefor, the Superintendent of the hospital shall give notice thereof to the judge of the criminal court and deliver him to the court in obedience to proper precept. D.C. Code § 22-3509. (Emphasis added.)
Not “dangerous to other persons,” as used in the statute, obviously refers back to the definition contained in section 22-3503 and means not dangerous to other persons because he is not likely to attack or otherwise inflict injury, pain or other evil on the objects of his desire.
It should be noted that the Sexual Psychopath Act when enacted was complementary with those laws providing for the commitment of “insane” persons 2 and the overall intent of Congress was to add to insane persons, an additional class of persons who were to be committed to Saint Elizabeths Hospital, i. e., sexual psychopaths in addition to insane persons. Such legislation assumed that insane persons, who except for their being insane were within the definition of sexual psychopaths, would be confined and it merely added another class of patients subject to indeterminate commitment, i. e., until sufficiently recovered so as not to be dangerous to other persons.
In 1965 Congress enacted the Act for the “Hospitalization of the Mentally 111” in the District of Columbia and in so doing substituted “mental illness” for “insane” as the basis for commitment (D.C. Code § 21-545(b), 79 Stat. 756). “Mental illness” was defined to mean “a psychosis or other disease which substantially impairs the mental health of a person” (D.C.Code § 21-501) and the statute provided:
If the court or jury finds that the person is mentally ill and, because of that illness, is likely to injure himself or other persons if allowed to remain at liberty, the court may order his hospitalization for an indeterminate period, or order any other alternative course of treatment which the court believes will be in the best interests of the person or the public.
D.C.Code § 21-545(b) (Emphasis added).
The change by the 1965 Hospitalization Act in the standard from “insane” (D.C. Code § 21-315 (1940 ed.), 53 Stat. 1296) to one of “mental illness” doubtlessly had the effect of encompassing a larger group of persons and in doing so may have trespassed into that small group of persons who were covered by the original definition of sexual psychopaths. This overlapping group would be composed of *1026those who were covered by the original Sexual Psychopath Act and who were “not insane” but were “mentally ill.” To the extent that the “mentally ill” standard of the 1965 Hospitalization Act is applied to the Sexual Psychopath Act and limits the application of that law by excluding persons originally defined as sexual psychopaths, I would not release any person within that group from his commitment as a sexual psychopath (not insane) unless he were found to be not mentally ill and commitable under the new definition. I believe that to be the true intent of Congress. Certainly Congress in passing the Hospitalization Act did not intend to bring about a wholesale release of sexual psychopaths. In this connection it should also be pointed out that while both standards encompass persons likely to injure others and authorize their confinement until cured, the “injury” standards of the two statutes are not completely complementary. The sexual psychopath definition is broader in that in addition to persons who are likely to injure others it also includes persons who are “likely to attack or otherwise inflict * * * loss, pain, or other evil on the objects of his desire” (emphasis added) and provides for the mandatory commitment of such persons (D. C.Code § 22-3508). However, commitment of those mentally ill under the Hospitalization Act is discretionary (D.C. Code § 21-545(b)).
This portion of the wider definition in the Sexual Psychopath Act is particularly applicable to that very small group of persons who have an uncontrollable propensity to commit sexual attacks and otherwise engage in perverse and other sexual type assaults that some people consider do not cause visual physical “injury.” Some people argue that many of such sick type acts do not cause “injury.” In this respect, they argue for a very narrow definition of “injury” which in many instances would exempt them from the Sexual Psychopath Act because they are mentally ill, and would also not confine them under the discretionary authority conferred by the Hospitalization of the Mentally 111 Act. To release this group of people from their commitment as sexual psychopaths because they may be said to be mentally ill (and possibly not considered commitable because they were not likely to cause actual physical injury to others in the more limited sense of the mental illness definition) would be a complete negation of the true intent of Congress in the Sexual Psychopath Act. Consequently, those persons who meet the definition of being mentally ill and who under the discretion provided by the hospitalization statute are not to be confined, if they are likely to cause injury under the broader standard of the original Sexual Psychopath Act, I would continue their commitment under the Sexual Psychopath Act. Otherwise, they would be relegated to prosecution as minor criminals and the sentences for the normal offenses in such cases are all too frequently in the misdemeanor category. These misdemeanor statutes, and even some felony statutes, do not adequately consider or treat the exceedingly dangerous propensity of the sexual psychopath in conferring punishment. Such persons should not be considered as criminals but as patients and as such they should be confined until cured. I believe that to have been the intent of Congress in legislating in this area.

. Persons covered by this definition constitute a very small group of persons, but a group that is very dangerous to society.

. Since the Sexual Psychopath Act only provided for the commitment of persons with such propensities who were “not insane,” it was completely complementary to the “insane” standard prescribed by the statute for the commitment of insane persons. Cf. D.C.Code § 21-315 (1940 ed.), 53 Stat. 1296. In this respect the District of Columbia Sexual Psychopath Statute as enacted in 1948 followed exactly the format of tlie Psychopathic Personality Statute in the State of Minnesota from which it was patterned. See Minnesota Laws, 1939, c. 369. The constitutionality of the Minnesota Sexual Psychopath Statute had been upheld in Minnesota ex rel. Pearson v. Probate Court, 309 U.S. 270, 60 S.Ct. 523, 84 L.Ed. 744 (1940).