Court Opinion

ID: 9687697
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:42:39.324485+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:30.125903
License: Public Domain

*630HENDERSON, Justice
(dissenting).
As recent as our decision in State v. Reed, 451 N.W.2d 409 (S.D.1990), Henderson, J., dissenting, I reiterated my position that the GBMI statutes in South Dakota are unconstitutional: "These statutes are badly in need of due process correction.” Reed at 411. Reed had appealed his convictions of guilty but mentally ill (GBMI) following a jury trial on two counts of Aggravated Assault. In State v. Baker, 440 N.W.2d 284 (S.D.1989), I also dissented on the grounds of the unconstitutionality of the GBMI statutes, set forth in my two dissenting opinions in Robinson v. Solem, 432 N.W.2d 246, 252-58 (S.D.1988) and State v. Robinson, 399 N.W.2d 324, 327-30 (S.D.1987). In the 1987 Robinson case, Justice Sabers, the majority writer in this opinion, joined my rationale on the unconstitutionality of the GBMI statutes of this state for the reason, inter alia, that the criteria was not followed as set forth by the United States Supreme Court in Vitek v. Jones, 445 U.S. 480, 494-96, 100 S.Ct. 1254, 1263-65, 63 L.Ed.2d 552, 565-67 (1980). In the 1988 Robinson case, I again attacked the constitutionality of the GBMI statutes. Again, the majority writer of this decision, expressed as follows: “Although I maintain my belief that SDCL 23A-27-38 is unconstitutional for reasons expressed in Justice Henderson's dissent in Robinson I, I concur in the result of this part of the case on the basis that Robinson’s challenge to the constitutionality 23A-27-38 is premature.” In the 1988 Robinson decision, Morgan, J., concurred in part and concurred in result in part. He expressed:
My concurrence in the first issue is reluctant. In State v. Robinson, 399 N.W.2d 324 (S.D.1987), there was a strong dissent representing the views of two members of this Court. I think that the views of that dissent were premature and that is why I concurred therein. I wish that the legislature would take heed of that dissent and strive as diligently to correct the statutory scheme as it has to change the burden of proof. It might avoid a possible future problem when a majority possibly would decide that the time has come to apply the reasoning of that dissent.
No heed has been taken by the Legislature and they have not diligently attempted to correct the statutory scheme. A perusal of the South Dakota Compiled Laws demonstrates that the Legislature has done nothing to meet the criteria of Vitek. Under SDCL 23A-27-38, South Dakota prison officials are not required to do anything to treat the prisoner; rather, the language is confined to merely examine the prisoner. Even if treatment is determined to be necessary and available, the prisoner (Bailey in this case) may be allowed to vegetate without treatment under SDCL 23A-27-38: “If the defendant is sentenced to the state penitentiary he shall undergo further examination and may be given the treatment that is psychiatrically indicated for his mental illness.” (emphasis supplied mine). I cannot join any decision, in this Court, which expressly or impliedly approves of a sentence to the State Penitentiary where a man, such as Bailey, has been found guilty but mentally ill unless there is a guarantee of treatment. The State of South Dakota and its Parole Board, and the Warden of the State Penitentiary, should be mandated to secure help for the mentally ill. Incarceration of the mentally ill, without treatment, is barbaric.