People v. Stevens

• Decision Date: 12 September 1988
• Docket Number: No. 87SA29,87SA29
• Citation: 761 P.2d 768
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Petitioners-Appellees, v. Johnnie Sue STEVENS, Respondent-Appellant, and Department of Institutions, Intervenor-Appellee.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 768

761 P.2d 768

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Petitioners-Appellees, v. Johnnie Sue STEVENS, Respondent-Appellant and Department of Institutions, Intervenor-Appellee.

No. 87SA29.

Supreme Court of Colorado En Banc.

Sept. 12, 1988.

Duane Woodard, Atty. Gen., Charles B. Howe, Chief Deputy Atty. Gen., Richard H. Forman, Sol. Gen., Barbara Widick, Asst. Atty. Gen., Denver, Joanna D. Hellman, Asst. Co. Atty., Littleton, for petitioners-appellees.

Susan J. Dycus, Sally S. Townshend, Denver, for respondent-appellant.

Duane Woodard, Atty. Gen., Charles B. Howe, Chief Deputy Atty. Gen., Richard H. Forman, Sol. Gen., Carolyn Lievers, First Asst. Atty. Gen., Denver, for intervenor-appellee.

VOLLACK, Justice.

Johnnie Sue Stevens appeals the decision of the Arapahoe County District Court approving her certification for short-term mental health treatment at the Fort Logan Mental Health Center. We affirm.

I.

In March 1986, Stevens met an Air Force sergeant at a bus stop. They struck up a conversation. She told him she had unexpectedly been discharged from the Air Force and that her job did not generate enough income to pay her bills. She also told him she had just bought a gun. She showed it to him and said she planned to shoot herself with it. The sergeant eventually caught his bus without pursuing the matter.

The next day, Stevens happened to be across the street while the sergeant waited for another bus. She walked across the street to talk to him. She opened her bag, showed him the gun she had bought the day before, and said it was loaded. During the conversation, she told him she had met terrorists who were planning a "kamikaze raid against the White House," and that she knew people who had volunteered to kill the Air Force officer responsible for her military discharge. The sergeant reported the events of that day to his superior officers, and they in turn called the police. ¹

That night two Aurora police officers went to Stevens' apartment believing she had a gun and planned to commit suicide. She denied she planned to kill herself but admitted she had a gun. She became increasingly hostile to the officers, and they eventually subdued her and took her to the Fort Logan Mental Health Center for psychiatric treatment and evaluation.

Following a seventy-two hour evaluation, she was diagnosed as suffering from a paranoid personality disorder, and was certified for short-term treatment. She contested the certification at a hearing in the Arapahoe County District Court. The district court stated that Stevens had the "potential for dangerousness." It found that she was mentally ill and, as a result, a danger to herself or others, and ordered her to undergo involuntary treatment.

Stevens now appeals directly to this court pursuant to section 13-4-110(1)(a), 6A C.R.S. (1987). She claims that section 27-10-107, 11 C.R.S. (1982), is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, both on its face and as applied to her. She argues that the term "dangerous" in section 27-10-107 is vague because it fails to specify the degree of dangerousness required to sustain an involuntary commitment, and overbroad because it permits commitment based on the mere possibility of dangerousness. She also argues that due process of law and the civil commitment statutes require consideration of less restrictive alternatives as a condition precedent to certification for short-term treatment.

II.

Commitment for any purpose constitutes a significant deprivation of liberty that requires due process protection. Jones v. United States, 463 U.S. 354, 361, 103 S.Ct. 3043, 3048, 77 L.Ed.2d 694 (1983); Curnow v. Yarbrough, 676 P.2d 1177, 1183 (Colo.1984). Commitment pursuant to a statute whose terms are unduly vague violates the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment. People v. Howell, 196 Colo. 408, 412, 586 P.2d 27, 30 (1978); see also Village of Hoffman Estates v. Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc., 455 U.S. 489, 492, 102 S.Ct. 1186, 1190, 7 L.Ed.2d 362 (1982) (commercial free speech challenge to a head shop statute). Statutes enjoy a presumption of constitutionality, however, People v. Moore, 674 P.2d 354, 357 (Colo.1984), and the party challenging them bears the burden of proving unconstitutionality beyond a reasonable doubt, People v. Rowerdink, 756 P.2d 986, 990 (Colo.1988).

A statute offends due process of law "if it is so vague that it does not provide fair warning of the conduct prohibited or if its standards are so ill-defined as to create a danger of arbitrary and capricious enforcement." Eckley v. Colorado Real Estate Comm'n, 752 P.2d 68, 73 (Colo.1988) (citations omitted). A statute is not void for vagueness, however, if it fairly describes the forbidden conduct so that persons of common intelligence can readily understand its meaning and application. People v. O'Cana, 725 P.2d 1139, 1141 (Colo.1986). The language of the statute must be specific enough to give fair warning of the prohibited conduct, yet general enough to address the problem under varied circumstances and during changing times. People v. Castro, 657 P.2d 932, 939 (Colo.1983). A statute that fails to set precise standards, however, may be given a constitutional interpretation through a limiting construction that accomplishes the purposes for which the statute was enacted. See Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568, 572, 62 S.Ct. 766, 769, 86 L.Ed.2d 1031 (1942); Hansen v. People, 190 Colo. 457, 461, 548 P.2d 1278, 1281 (1976); see also People v. Randall, 711 P.2d 689, 692 (Colo.1985) (statutes capable of both constitutional and unconstitutional interpretations must be interpreted in constitutional fashion).

A.

Predicting future violent behavior among the mentally ill is a difficult and controversial task. See O'Connor v. Donaldson, 422 U.S. 563, 584, 95 S.Ct. 2486, 2498, 45 L.Ed.2d 396 (1975) (Burger, C.J., concurring); Steadman, Predicting Dangerousness Among the Mentally Ill: Art, Magic and Science, 6 Int'l J.L. & Psych. 381, 381 (1983). Yet predictions of future behavior are inherent in showing that medical intervention is mandated. Addington v. Texas, 441 U.S. 418, 429, 99 S.Ct. 1804, 1811, 60 L.Ed.2d 323 (1979); People v. Taylor, 618 P.2d 1127, 1136 (Colo.1980). Over the last two centuries, the dangerousness standard for involuntary commitment has developed in the United States. Comment, Involuntary Civil Commitment: The Dangerousness Standard and Its Problems, 63 N.C.L.Rev. 241, 245 (1984). According to the United States Supreme Court, involuntary commitment depends "not solely on the medical judgment that the defendant is mentally ill and treatable, but also on the social and legal judgment that his potential for doing harm, to himself or to others, is great enough to justify such a massive curtailment of liberty." Humphrey v. Cady, 405 U.S. 504, 509, 92 S.Ct. 1048, 1052, 31 L.Ed.2d 394 (1972) (footnote omitted) (emphasis added) (dictum). This potential for doing harm, which is synonymous with dangerousness, is incorporated into section 27-10-107. Section 27-10-107(1)(a) requires a determination that the patient is mentally ill and, as a result of mental illness, a danger to others or to himself or gravely disabled. See Curnow, 676 P.2d at 1182.

[T]he statutory procedure [described in section 27-10-107] brings both the educated opinion of the expert and the common sense judgment of the judge or jury to bear on whether short-term involuntary treatment is necessary. This procedure, involving a mixture of medical and social or legal judgments, was obviously adopted to put a check on the discretion of the professionals responsible for deciding whether certification is justified. See Humphrey v. Cady, 405 U.S. 504, 92 S.Ct. 1048, 31 L.Ed.2d 394 (1972).

Taylor, 618 P.2d at 1133. Once a determination is made that a patient's mental illness "renders him potentially dangerous," the state may exercise its police power over the patient in ordering his involuntary commitment. People v. Lane, 196 Colo. 42, 45, 581 P.2d 719, 721 (1978) (emphasis added).

The term "dangerous" in section 16-8-120(1), 8A C.R.S. (1986), ² relating to conditional release from the department of institutions, has been found not to be unconstitutionally vague because persons of common intelligence can readily understand its meaning and application. See Howell, 196 Colo. at 412, 586 P.2d at 30; see also Glatz v. Kort, 807 F.2d 1514, 1522 (10th Cir.1986) (imprecision in forecasting potential for dangerousness does not render section 16-8-120 unconstitutionally vague). The meaning of "danger" is equally comprehensible in the civil commitment context, so it does not offend due process for that reason.

Stevens nevertheless argues that the term "danger" in sections 27-10-107, -109, and -111 offends due process by creating a danger of arbitrary enforcement. She argues that the term fails to set precise standards for determining when a patient's potential for doing harm to self or others is great enough to justify the massive curtailment of liberty inherent in involuntary commitment.

1.

Colorado is one of a handful of states that has not qualified or further defined the degree of dangerousness required for involuntary commitment. ³ The remaining states have chosen to define the degree of dangerousness in terms of a risk of harm to self or others. This risk has been alternately described as a substantial risk, ⁴ a clear and present threat, ⁵ likely, ⁶ a reasonable expectation, ⁷ and an imminent threat. ⁸ Many states impose the additional requirement that the state prove that the patient had committed a recent overt act of violence to himself or others. ⁹

There is no requirement, however, that due process of law must be the same in all fifty states. People ex rel. Juhan v. District Court, 165 Colo. 253, 260-61, 439 P.2d 741, 745 (1968).

The essence of federalism is that states must be free to develop a variety of solutions to problems and not be forced into a common, uniform mold....