Court Opinion

ID: 9667325
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:42:41.698289+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:37.080402
License: Public Domain

SEILER, Judge
(dissenting).
Originally I concurred in result in the majority opinion in this case, on the theory that a post-commitment hearing on the question of insanity satisfies due process. However, after further reflection and hearing oral argument in the case of State v. Kent, No. 58531, which raises substantially the same issue, I am convinced that due process will not be satisfied unless a defendant, acquitted on the basis of mental disease or defect at the time of the alleged offense, is afforded a hearing on the question of sanity prior to commitment. I therefore respectfully dissent and withdraw my concurrence.
We do not imprison people in this country without first proving a case against them. We do not confine them first and then make them prove they should be released. But here we do, simply because the defendant has successfully interposed the defense of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. This comes close to being a form of punishment for using the defense. If we could say that the commitment was always close enough in time to the offense charged, so that it could reasonably be said that the mental disease or defect existing at the time of offense was still persisting as of the time of the commitment, then perhaps due process would be satisfied by a prompt post-commitment hearing. But the fact is that there are many cases where a period of two or three years or more passes from the time of the offense to the time of trial, yet the statute inexorably requires commitment. To put a defendant in what is the equivalent of prison on the unfound*485ed assumption that his mental condition today is the same as it was two or three years ago is not due process, in my opinion.
In addition, once he is committed to the state hospital as criminally insane, without a hearing, we then put the burden of proof and effort on him to prove that he does not have and is not likely to have mental disease or defect rendering him dangerous or unable to conform. We would not tolerate taking a man’s property away from him under these conditions and we should not do so with his freedom.
The court, however, believes the post-commitment hearing satisfies due process and while the nature of that hearing is not discussed, it seems to me that if it is to afford any due process, then that hearing must be an opportunity for a genuine test in court of whether the defendant should be released, which in turn means assistance of counsel, including appointed counsel for indigents, unimpeded access to the courts, a prompt hearing on the application, independent psychiatric examination, compulsory process, discovery, confrontation and cross-examination of witnesses, and adequate findings by the trial court.