U.S. v. McAllister

• Decision Date: 12 June 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-3397,99-3397
• Citation: 225 F.3d 982
• Parties: (8th Cir. 2000) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLEE, v. HOWARD MCALLISTER, APPELLANT Submitted:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 982

225 F.3d 982 (8th Cir. 2000)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLEE, v. HOWARD MCALLISTER, APPELLANT

No. 99-3397

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

Submitted: June 12, 2000

Filed: September 18, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Before: Hansen and Heaney, Circuit Judges, and MILLS,¹ District Judge.

Mills, District Judge

This appeal raises a matter of first impression.

Does 18 U.S.C. § 4246(e) require a district court to conduct a hearing prior to conditionally releasing an individual who has been committed to the custody of the Attorney General of the United States pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4246(d)?

We find that § 4246(e) does not require a hearing.

We also find that the conditions imposed upon Appellant as part of his release do not violate his constitutional or statutory rights.

Therefore, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Howard McAllister served in the United States Army for 27 years, attaining the rank of Sergeant Major before being retired in June 1991 on a full medical disability based upon his psychiatric condition.²

On July 24, 1991, McAllister allegedly shot a Department of Defense police officer and an Army sergeant. Evidently, the Army had permitted McAllister to stay in a dormitory room at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., pending its decision to retire him for medical reasons. When the police officer and the Army sergeant informed McAllister that he could no longer stay in the room at Walter Reed, he allegedly shot the Army sergeant in the chest and fatally shot the police officer.

On August 16, 1991, a federal grand jury sitting in Washington, D.C., returned a four count indictment against McAllister for the events which had occurred at Walter Reed.

On February 9, 1993, United States District Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the District of Columbia conducted a competency hearing in McAllister's criminal case. At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Lamberth found by a preponderance of the evidence that McAllister was incompetent to stand trial because he was incapable of assisting in his own defense. Accordingly, Judge Lamberth ordered McAllister to be hospitalized for treatment of his delusional disorder. McAllister was then placed in the Federal Medical Center at Rochester, Minnesota ("FMC-Rochester").

On June 29, 1993, Judge Lamberth conducted a second competency hearing. At this second hearing, Judge Lamberth again found McAllister incompetent to stand trial. In making this determination, Judge Lamberth relied upon a report from FMC-Rochester's clinicians which indicated that McAllister "remain[ed] incompetent to stand trial and that there is not a substantial probability that, in the foreseeable future, he will attain the capacity to permit trial to proceed." Accordingly, Judge Lamberth ordered McAllister to undergo further evaluations and, if appropriate, that commitment proceedings be commenced against him pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4246(d).

On August 30, 1993, the Government filed a petition for commitment pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4246(d). United States District Judge David S. Doty of the District of Minnesota referred the petition to United States Magistrate Judge Floyd E. Boline who conducted an evidentiary hearing on November 17, 1993. At the hearing, staff psychologist and director of forensics at FMC-Rochester Mary Alice Conroy, Ph.D., testified that McAllister was still suffering from an unusual paranoid delusional disorder and that he could seriously hurt someone if he were to be released. On February 16, 1994, Magistrate Judge Boline found by clear and convincing evidence that McAllister suffered from a mental disorder or defect and that his release from confinement would create a substantial risk of injury to another person or property. Accordingly, Magistrate Judge Boline recommended that the Government's petition for commitment be granted and that McAllister be committed to the custody of the Attorney General of the United States. After conducting a de novo review, Judge Doty adopted Magistrate Judge Boline's report and recommendation in toto and ordered that McAllister be committed to the Attorney General's custody pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4246(d).

On December 11, 1996, McAllister filed a motion with Judge Doty asking him to review, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4247(h), his commitment order. In the motion, McAllister argued that, in the three years in which he had been at FMC-Rochester, he had shown no signs of being dangerous, and thus, he should be released from custody. Judge Doty referred the motion to United States Magistrate Judge John M. Mason who, after conducting an evidentiary hearing, found that McAllister had not established by a preponderance of the evidence that "he ha[d] recovered from his mental illness to such an extent that his release would no longer pose a danger to society." United States v. McAllister, 963 F. Supp. 829, 834 (D. Minn. 1997). Thereafter, Judge Doty adopted Magistrate Judge Mason's report and recommendation and denied McAllister's motion for review of his commitment order. Id. at 830.

On January 29, 1999, the warden at FMC-Rochester notified Judge Doty via a letter that, although McAllister continued to suffer from a major mental illness, FMC-Rochester's medical staff had concluded that McAllister could be conditionally released subject to a structured regimen of care. Specifically, the clinicians suggested that McAllister be moved to a residential care setting, initially on an in-patient basis and gradually be moved to an out-patient basis. The warden also informed Judge Doty that the South Carolina Department of Mental Health had agreed to accept McAllister for a 30-day psychiatric assessment with the intention of accepting him on a conditional release if the assessment indicated the potential for successful treatment. Accordingly, the warden recommended to Judge Doty that McAllister be released, subject to certain conditions, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4246(e).

On June 2, 1999, Judge Doty entered an order, without conducting a hearing, releasing McAllister from his § 4246(d) commitment subject to the conditions suggested by FMC-Rochester's clinicians. On June 11, 1999, McAllister's counsel filed a motion to modify two of the conditions imposed upon him by Judge Doty's June 2, 1999 order. Specifically, McAllister objected to condition number three which required him to take psychotropic medication if ordered to do so by the clinicians at the South Carolina in-patient or the out-patient mental health facility, and he objected to condition number five which mandated his return to in-patient status at a facility designated by the South Carolina Department of Mental Health if, at any time while on out-patient status, his treating clinicians deemed his return to in-patient status necessary. McAllister argued that condition number three had previously been decided in his favor (i.e., FMC-Rochester could not force him to take psychotropic medication, see United States v. McAllister, 969 F. Supp. 1200 (D. Minn. 1997)), and therefore, the condition should be modified. Moreover, McAllister contended that condition number five should be modified to require a hearing before a district judge before he could be required to return to in-patient status.

On June 25, 1999, Judge Doty denied McAllister's motion to modify the conditions of his release. Therein, Judge Doty explained that his June 2, 1999 order did not address medical treatment options within a federal institution; rather, it constituted a plan to conditionally release him in incremental stages. In addition, Judge Doty declined to limit the treating options available to the South Carolina Department of Mental Health due to the important issues of public safety which were involved.

McAllister has now filed the instant appeal raising two issues to this Court. The first issue raised by McAllister is whether Judge Doty erred in conditionally releasing him pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4246(e)(2) without first conducting a hearing. The second issue raised by McAllister is whether condition number five in Judge Doty's June 2, 1999 order violates his constitutional and statutory rights in that the condition requires his return to in-patient status upon the sole determination of his treating clinicians without being subject to any judicial review.

II. ANALYSIS

A. HEARING

We review a district court's statutory interpretation de novo. United States v. Vig, 167 F.3d 443, 447 (8th Cir. 1999). "Our objective in interpreting a federal statute is to give effect to the intent of Congress. . . . [A]bsent clearly expressed legislative intention to the contrary, the language is regarded as conclusive." Id. Thus,

[o]ur starting point in interpreting a statute is always the language of the statute itself. If the plain language of the statute is unambiguous, that language is conclusive absent clear legislative intent to the contrary. Therefore, if the intent of Congress can be clearly discerned from the statute's language, the judicial inquiry must end. If, on the other hand, the language of a statute is ambiguous, we should consider "the purpose, the subject matter and the condition of affairs which led to its enactment." When the meaning of a statute is questionable, it should be given a sensible construction and construed to effectuate the underlying purposes of the law.

United States v. S.A., 129 F.3d 995, 998 (8th Cir. 1997)(internal citations omitted).

The statute at issue in the instant case is 18 U.S.C. § 4246(e) which provides:

When the director of the facility in which a person is hospitalized pursuant to subsection (d) determines that the person has recovered from his mental disease or defect to such an extent that his release would no longer create a substantial risk of bodily injury to another person or serious damage to property of another, he shall promptly file a certificate to...