Court Opinion

ID: 9738659
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:59:59.432982+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:07.675881
License: Public Domain

*240Concurring Opinion
Mote, J.
I concur in the opinion and the conclusion of Judge Arterburn. In doing so, it appears appropriate to express my views upon the general subject before us, as presented by a Petition for Writ of Mandate and Prohibition and the Response thereto.
The factual situation already is clearly presented. There is involved, however, an overall philosophy to which I wish to address myself.
In these times of abrupt and almost complete reversal of attitudes regarding constitutional government, it seems to me that too often we have been compelled by enigmatic forces to adjust our solutions to perplexing moral, philosophical and economic problems for the benefit of the thorough non-conformist at the expense of conformity, that is, an ordered society with reasonable rules and regulations for our guidance. For one, I do not read the provisions of our Bill of Rights, the various amendments to our Federal Constitution, to have the import so often thereto attributed in high places.
It has been said that a prerequisite to the favorable acceptance of the proposed Constitution of the United States was the prompt adoption thereafter of our Bill of Rights. Careful study of the times, the reasons, the sense and feeling of the early colonists reasonably should induce the objective conclusion that those residing in the early colonies were solicitous of their own local rights and powers in relation to the central government. Little did they expect or contemplate that what they sought and were granted, much in mysterious and deceiving ways, eventually would operate as a sword instead of a shield.
While we do not here criticize the often-cited and relied upon Escobedo and Miranda Cases, we must remark that the pitfall in to which they have lead us produces a good example of the “adjustment” referred to above when, in order to1 pre*241vent an avalanche of court proceedings for freedom, a “cutoff” date had to be employed.
The field of mental health long has been the subject of much consideration. Full enlightenment surely has not yet been achieved; however, our society appears to have made great strides in the field of treatment and in the protection and attempt to help those poor unfortunates who, through no fault of their own, are unable to fully participate and to compete in citizenship.
It is my considered opinion that Relator herein has been accorded the fullest protection under our statutes and that he has not been harmed by the order of the trial court, Respondent herein, which carefully has followed the provisions of the governing statutes. Nor will the Relator be harmed by the questions likely to be propounded and answered by him.
First, he may be heard in the trial forum before admission of the questions and his answers. Second, being civil in nature, his answers may not be used against him in any proceeding, criminal or otherwise, but the one designed to determine whether he is a sexual psychopathic person under the provisions of § 9-3401, et seq., Burns’ Ind. Stat. Anno. Third, as above stated, Relator has not yet been harmed, nor will he be, in light of the protective measures afforded him, to-wit: appropriate if not availing objections at the trial on the issues of whether he is a sexual psychopathic person and his right of appeal, wherein this Court will have before it the full and complete record for review.
In my opinion, the authorities in Indiana and elsewhere, cited by Judge Arterbum, amply support his conclusion to deny the Petition and I therefore concur with him.