84 Hawai'i 269, State v. Miller

• Decision Date: 20 February 1997
• Docket Number: No. 16677,16677
• Citation: 933 P.2d 606
• Parties: 84 Hawai'i 269 STATE of Hawai'i, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Warren David MILLER, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Hawaii Supreme Court

Page 606

933 P.2d 606

84 Hawai'i 269

STATE of Hawai'i, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Warren David MILLER, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 16677.

Supreme Court of Hawai'i.

Feb. 20, 1997.

Reconsideration Denied April 3, 1997.

Jeffrey M. Albert, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, on the briefs, Honolulu, for petitioner-appellee.

Theodore Y. H. Chinn, Deputy Public Defender, on the briefs, Honolulu, for petitioner-appellant.

Before MOON, C.J., KLEIN, NAKAYAMA and RAMIL, JJ., and Circuit Judge KOCHI, in place of LEVINSON, J., Recused.

KLEIN, Justice.

We granted certiorari to review the Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA) opinion vacating and remanding a circuit court order denying Warren David Miller's motion for discharge or conditional release from the Hawai'i State Hospital. State v. Miller, No. 16677 (Haw.Ct.App. Jan. 9, 1995), reconsideration denied, 77 Hawai'i 501, 889 P.2d 78, cert. granted, 78 Hawai'i 421, 895 P.2d 172 (1995). We reverse. We also, pursuant to Rule 2(a) of the Rules of the Intermediate Court of Appeals, direct that an order depublishing the ICA's opinion be filed concurrently with this opinion.

I. BACKGROUND

On September 28, 1977, Miller was indicted on charges of attempted rape in the first degree, attempted murder, attempted sodomy in the first degree, kidnaping, and four counts of sexual abuse in the first degree. ¹ On July 10, 1978, the circuit court granted Miller's motion for acquittal "on the ground of mental disease or disorder excluding responsibility." The circuit court found Miller dangerous and committed him to the Hawai'i State Hospital, where he was to be held in "maximum security" because of his "high degree of dangerousness."

Prior to the current petition, the circuit court denied five requests for release filed by Miller between 1980 and 1989. On June 25, 1991, Miller once again sought release. The circuit court held hearings in August and October of 1992. Only one of the experts who testified at the hearing considered Miller mentally ill, dangerous, and unfit to be released. After hearing all the evidence and the arguments of counsel, the circuit court denied Miller's petition for conditional release.

In its findings of fact, the circuit court found by "clear and convincing evidence that Warren Miller currently suffers from a mental disease, disorder or defect of sexual sadism and antisocial personality." The court further found by "clear and convincing evidence that a conditional release from [Hawai'i] State Hospital would pose a mild danger to others in the community." Although Hawai'i Revised Statutes (HRS) § 704-411(4) (1993) places the burden on the insanity acquittee to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that he or she is fit to be released, the circuit court adopted the clear and convincing burden of proof based on its conclusion that:

[t]he United State[s] Supreme Court has ruled in [Foucha v. Louisiana, 504 U.S. 71, 112 S.Ct. 1780, 118 L.Ed.2d 437 (1992),] that a State cannot continue the commitment of a defendant in a mental institution unless the State can prove by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant has a mental illness and is dangerous.

On appeal to the ICA, Miller claimed that the circuit court's findings of fact were clearly erroneous because the state failed to meet its burden of proof, either by a preponderance of the evidence under HRS § 704-411(4), or by clear and convincing evidence mandated by Foucha.

The ICA's majority opinion rejected the clear and convincing burden test that the circuit court imported from Foucha. The majority also disagreed with Miller's argument that Foucha and Jones v. United States, 463 U.S. 354, 103 S.Ct. 3043, 77 L.Ed.2d 694 (1983), require application of the clear and convincing burden of proof. The court distinguished both of these cases, indicating that Jones was inapposite because Miller is an insanity acquittee, rather than a civil committee, and that Foucha was distinguishable because the state had not relinquished its claim that Miller was mentally ill, as Louisiana had in Foucha. Thus, the ICA held:

(1) Miller's motion [for conditional release] must be granted unless the State (a) alleges that Miller (i) suffers from one or more mental illnesses, and (ii) is dangerous, and (b) proves by a preponderance of the evidence that one or more of the alleged mental illnesses are mental illnesses as defined by law; and, if the State satisfies the above requirements, the burden then shifts and (2) Miller's motion must be denied unless Miller proves by a preponderance of evidence that (a) he is not then suffering from one or more of the alleged mental illnesses; (b) he is not then dangerous; or (c) his dangerousness does not result from any of his mental illnesses. Therefore, we vacate and remand for reconsideration in the light of this opinion.

The ICA therefore vacated the circuit court's order and remanded the case for further proceedings because the "evidentiary hearing was conducted without a clear understanding of which side had to prove what and to what degree."

The ICA also directed the circuit court to make a specific finding as to whether Miller suffered from a "legally recognized mental illness." The ICA referred the circuit court to HRS § 704-400 (1993), which defines a "mental illness" as a

physical or mental disease, disorder, or defect, not including abnormality manifested only by repeated penal or otherwise antisocial conduct, that results in the person's lack of substantial capacity to either appreciate the wrongfulness of the person's conduct or to conform the person's conduct to the requirements of law.

According to the ICA, it is unclear from the circuit court order if Miller's diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder constitutes a "legal mental illness," or an "abnormality manifested only by repeated penal or otherwise antisocial conduct."

The dissenting opinion in Miller argued that Foucha mandates an insanity acquittee be afforded the same procedural protections that are provided to the civil committee. The dissent also had "serious reservations" about finding Miller legally mentally ill under "either [the preponderance of the evidence or the clear and convincing evidence] standard."

Both Miller and the state filed an application for a writ of certiorari. Because this case presents an important issue concerning the release of insanity acquittees from a mental health facility, we granted certiorari.

II. DISCUSSION

Miller argues that the ICA majority opinion should be reversed because: (1) the allocation of the burden of proof on the insanity acquittee to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that he or she is eligible for release violates his right to due process and equal protection of the laws; (2) the ICA erred in using the definition of a lack of penal responsibility under HRS § 704-400 to define "mental illness" for purposes of a discharge or conditional release proceeding; and (3) there was insufficient evidence to support the circuit court's conclusion that Miller is mentally ill and a danger to the community.

The state urges this court to reverse that portion of the ICA opinion vacating the circuit court's order denying Miller's motion for conditional release, and remanding the case for further proceedings. According to the state, the circuit court's order should be affirmed because (1) the circuit court did not clearly err in denying Miller's motion for release, and (2) if there was error, it was harmless because the state satisfied a higher level of proof than that required by law.

We will examine these arguments seriatim.

A. The allocation of the burden on the insanity acquittee to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that he or she is no longer mentally ill or dangerous does not violate the insanity acquittee's right to due process or equal protection of the laws.

1. Due Process

The Hawai'i and United States Constitutions mandate that a person shall not be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Haw. Const. art. I, § 5; U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1. Freedom from unjustified governmental intrusions into personal security and bodily autonomy are at the core of the liberty protected by due process. Foucha, 504 U.S. at 80, 112 S.Ct. at 1785. "It is clear that commitment for any purpose constitutes a significant deprivation of liberty that requires due process protection." Id. As a matter of due process, an insanity acquittee is entitled to release when he or she has recovered his or her sanity or is no longer a danger to himself or herself or society. Id. at 77-78, 112 S.Ct. at 1784 (quoting Jones, 463 U.S. at 370, 103 S.Ct. at 3053). Under HRS § 704-415 (1993), ² the insanity acquittee has the burden of proving his or her right to release by a preponderance of the evidence.

In Miller, the ICA concluded that "HRS § 704-415's imposition upon the [insanity acquittee] of the burden of proving his or her lack of mental illness or lack of resulting dangerousness by a preponderance of the evidence" is constitutionally valid. Miller and the ICA dissent maintain that such a requirement violates Miller's right to due process under Foucha.

Miller misconstrues Foucha. In Foucha, the United States Supreme Court held that a Louisiana statute violated due process because it permitted the state to confine an insanity acquittee to a mental institution without a finding that he or she was both mentally ill and dangerous. 504 U.S. at 77-78, 112 S.Ct. at 1784. The Louisiana statute placed the burden on the insanity acquittee to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that he or she was no longer dangerous. Id. at 73, 112 S.Ct. at 1781. If the court found that he or she failed to carry this burden, the insanity acquittee could be returned to the mental institution "whether or not he [or she was] mentally ill." Id. In Foucha's case, a review panel recommended that Foucha be released because he had recovered from his temporary drug-induced...