State Ex Rel. Farrell v. Stovall

207 N.W.2d 809, 59 Wis. 2d 148, 1973 Wisc. LEXIS 1419
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedJune 8, 1973
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 207 N.W.2d 809 (State Ex Rel. Farrell v. Stovall) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Farrell v. Stovall, 207 N.W.2d 809, 59 Wis. 2d 148, 1973 Wisc. LEXIS 1419 (Wis. 1973).

Opinion

Wilkie, J.

On this remand, two issues are raised by this petition for habeas corpus and declaratory judgment action.

1. Do the equal protection requirements of the state and federal constitutions invalidate the sex deviate commitment proceedings under ch. 975, Stats., insofar as they fail to provide a jury trial, if requested, at either the initial commitment or subsequent commitment proceedings?

2. Are any of the distinctions between mentally ill persons under ch. 51 and sex deviates under ch. 975, Stats., constitutionally permissible?

1. The right to a jury trial.

It is petitioner’s essential contention that the 'Wisconsin Sex Crimes Law, ch. 975, Stats., denied him equal protection of the laws under the state and federal constitutions by failing to provide substantive and procedural safeguards substantially similar to those provided in the civil Mental Health Act. Since the civil commitment statute, ch. 51, provides a jury determination if requested on the issue of mental illness or infirmity it is argued that ch. 975, also involving a type of mental illness, must similarly provide a jury determination of sex deviancy. The failure of the Sex Crimes *155 Law to provide for a jury determination of sex devianey either at his initial commitment proceedings or at subsequent renewal commitment proceedings violates, according to petitioner, his right to equal protection of the laws.

The Wisconsin Sex Crimes Law was first enacted in 1947 and provided a district attorney with authority to petition a court for commitment “[wjhenever facts are presented . . . which satisfy him that good cause exists for judicial inquiry as to whether a person is a sexual psychopath.” 5 The 1947 Act provided for a judicial determination of sex psychopathy, 6 and further provided a jury trial similar to that provided in the civil commitment section *‘[i]f a jury is demanded by the alleged sexual psychopathic person or by any relative or friend acting in his behalf.” 7 The Sex Psychopath Act also provided that upon commitment as a sexual psychopath the provisions of the laws relating to the mentally ill were to become applicable. 8 These provisions included sec. 51.11, Stats., which provided a mentally ill person could at any time petition the judge of any court of record for re-examination as to his sanity. This statute further included the right to demand a jury trial on each of the re-examination petitions and the judge’s order or determination in accordance with the jury verdict. 9

In 1951 the legislature, while retaining the twofold purpose of the Act of protecting society from dangerous sex crimes and providing treatment for the sex offender, 10 significantly revised the Sex Psychopath Law, including a name change to the Sex Crimes Law and a *156 repositioning in the statutes to the chapter relating to criminal offenses against persons. 11 Other significant changes included a revision of the applicability of the Act’s provisions to only those convicted of a sex crime. This portion of the Act mandated a presentence social, physical and mental examination upon conviction of specified sex crimes and permitted such examinations, in the committing court’s discretion, upon conviction of any sex offense. 12 Significantly, the 1951 Sex Crimes Law deprived trial courts of any discretion in determining whether to order an individual to undergo “treatment for his mental and physical aberrations.” Sub. (6) provided that upon the department’s recommendation of specialized treatment the court had to either condition probation upon outpatient treatments or commit the person to the department. Effective judicial review of the department’s recommendations was not required until the expiration of the maximum term provided by law for the particular offense and thereafter at five-year intervals. 13 One of the most significant of all the changes accomplished by the 1951 Sex Crimes Law was the elimination of the former Act’s provisions relating to jury determinations of sex deviancy. Thus, the right of an alleged sex deviate to demand a jury at the initial commitment hearing and subsequent hearings on the necessity for the department’s continued control over him were not transferred into the revised law. 14

While the 1951 Sex Crimes Law has survived to this day with few legislative changes, it has given rise to a number of court challenges. The Act was upheld against *157 a constitutional due-process challenge by this court in State ex rel. Volden v. Haas, 15 but Volden was significantly modified thirteen years later on the same grounds in Huebner v. State, wherein a full independent judicial hearing “on the issue of the need for specialized treatment for his mental or physical aberrations” was held to be constitutionally required. 16 Although invited to expand the Huebner hearing to include a jury determination of sex deviancy if requested, this court, in Buchanan v. State, 17 declined to do so.

In Buchanan the court was asked to rule that considerations of due process and equal protection of the laws required an alleged sex deviate to have the same right to a jury trial as one alleged to be incompetent or mentally ill under ch. 51, Stats. Noting the equal-protection clause only requires some “valid distinction relevant to the purpose of the classification,” this court concluded such distinctions did exist between the two Acts. According to the court:

“There are several germane distinctions to the classification, as seen above — the most important is that a sexual deviate is confined because he is dangerous to the public, and the mentally ill, infirm or deficient person is confined primarily for his own benefit and treatment.” 18

Finally, this court in State v. Torpy held the Act and its administration to be constitutionally sufficient against challenges to both the initial commitment criteria and subsequent continued commitment criteria of the department of health & social services. 19

This is the history of the Wisconsin Sex Crimes Law which the instant petitioner seeks this court to again *158

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Bluebook (online)
207 N.W.2d 809, 59 Wis. 2d 148, 1973 Wisc. LEXIS 1419, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-farrell-v-stovall-wis-1973.