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Full-Text Articles in Law
Restore, Revert, Repeat: Examining The Decompensation Cycle And The Due Process Limitations On The Treatment Of Incompetent Defendants, Margaret W. Smith
Restore, Revert, Repeat: Examining The Decompensation Cycle And The Due Process Limitations On The Treatment Of Incompetent Defendants, Margaret W. Smith
Vanderbilt Law Review
Though correctional facilities are one of the largest providers of mental health care in the country, the treatment provided often fails to address the needs of many mentally ill inmates. Indeed, after receiving treatment at a state mental health facility, many pretrial detainees who have been recently restored to competency revert to an incompetent state-or decompensate-upon their return to jail, at which point they must return to the state treatment facility to be restored to competency once again. This Note is the first to explore this "decompensation cycle," highlighting the significance of the problem and demonstrating how mental health treatment …
The Search For Due Process In Civil Commitment Hearings: How Procedural Realities Have Altered Substantive Standards, Christyne E. Ferris
The Search For Due Process In Civil Commitment Hearings: How Procedural Realities Have Altered Substantive Standards, Christyne E. Ferris
Vanderbilt Law Review
The civil commitment of mentally ill individuals presents the legal system with an intractable question: When should the law deprive someone of the fundamental right to liberty based on a prediction of future dangerousness? Advocates of both increased and decreased levels of civil commitment offer compelling case studies to help resolve the question. The former point to high profile events like the Virginia Tech shooting, in which mandatory incapacitation of the perpetrator at the first sign of mental illness could have prevented a senseless tragedy. The latter highlight the lives of individuals like Kenneth Donaldson, whose father had him committed …
Automatic And Indefinite Commitment Of Insanity Acquittees: A Procedural Straitjacket, John B. Scherling
Automatic And Indefinite Commitment Of Insanity Acquittees: A Procedural Straitjacket, John B. Scherling
Vanderbilt Law Review
This Recent Development suggests that the Court erroneously decided Jones. Part II examines the Supreme Court's constitutional analysis of commitment procedures and discusses postacquittal commitment in state and lower federal courts. Part III analyzes the Jones decision and the exception that it allows for the commitment of insanity acquittees. Part IV contends that prior to involuntary and indefinite commitment an insanity acquittee deserves the same standard of proof as a civil commitment candidate-proof of mental illness and dangerousness by clear and convincing evidence. Part IV also argues that absent proof by clear and convincing evidence of the acquittee's need for …
Dangerousness And Expertise, Christopher Slobogin
Dangerousness And Expertise, Christopher Slobogin
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
The defendant-first approach advocated in this Article is more difficult to implement than either the current policy admitting any proffered expert testimony or the exclusionary reform advanced by many commentators. It requires some mechanism for apprising the state when the defense intends to use clinical prediction testimony. When no such intent is registered, it demands that any other clinical testimony, whether offered by the state or the defense, be carefully monitored to insure that the dangerousness issue is not raised; it may require revamping other procedures as well.2 " But the defendant-first approach also presents the factfinder with the most …