Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court made it harder Tuesday for states to keep sexual offenders locked up after their prison terms, requiring proof that an offender has a mental illness that causes serious difficulty with self-control.
Rapists, child molesters and other sex criminals must be treated the same as other people singled out for involuntary commitment under the court’s 7-2 decision.
The ruling was a defeat for states that use commitments to extend violent sex criminals’ time locked away from the public because of concerns about repeat offenders. The court did not ban the commitments.
"On one hand, sick people can be kept off the streets. On the other hand, the average citizen doesn’t need to worry about getting locked up for unpopular ideas," said Richard Samp, chief attorney for the Washington Legal Foundation.
More than 1,200 sex offenders are confined in 19 states with laws resembling the 1994 Kansas statute at issue in this case, the court was told. It was unclear how the ruling may affect them.
Washington’s sexual predator law already addresses the issue in the Kansas case, said Todd Bowers, an assistant state attorney general who prosecutes civil commitment cases.
"To be committed under the law now, we have to show that they’re both mentally ill and dangerous. Those are the constitutional requirements, and there must be a connection. The dangerousness must spring from the mental illness," he said.
That means that in Washington, sexual predators may be civilly committed if their self-control is impaired enough to make them dangerous.
"I I don’t anticipate that this is going to have any impact on Washington state cases," he said.
The Supreme Court did not go as far as the Kansas Supreme Court, which held that states must prove that inmates totally lacked control.
"It is enough to say that there must be proof of serious difficulty in controlling behavior," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote.
Justices had upheld the Kansas sex predator law in 1997. The law allows the indefinite confinement of violent sex offenders beyond their prison terms if they suffer from mental abnormalities making them likely to commit similar crimes in the future.
Justices in 1997 did not consider offenders’ ability to control their behavior.
The Supreme Court also took these actions Tuesday:
Herald reporter Cathy Logg contributed to this report.
Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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