WILSONv.SUPERIORCOURTOFLOS ANGELESCOUNTY PART-II
The Sexually Violent Predators Act (SVPA) (Welf. & Inst. Code, 6600 et seq.)[1]authorizes the state to identify individuals who suffer from mental disorders that predispose them to commit violent sexual crimes and to confine and treat them until they no longer threaten society. (People v. Allen (2008) 44 Cal.4th 843, 857 (Allen).) A proceeding under the SVPA is civil in nature and, although it may result in the involuntary commitment of the defendant, is not equivalent to a criminal prosecution. (Id. at pp. 860-861.) Nonetheless, because it involves a significant deprivation of liberty, a defendant in an SVPA proceeding is entitled to due process protections. (Id. at p. 862; see People v. McKee (2010) 47 Cal.4th 1172, 1188 (McKee) [[t]here is no question that civil commitment itself is constitutional so long as it is accompanied by the appropriate constitutional protections].)
In Allen, supra, 44 Cal.4th 843, applying the balancing test articulated in Mathews v. Eldridge (1976) 424 U.S. 319, 344 [96 S.Ct. 893, 47 L.Ed.2d 18] and People v. Otto (2001) 26 Cal.4th 200, 210, a unanimous Supreme Court held the defendant in an SVPA proceeding has a right under the due process clauses of the federal and state Constitutions to testify over the objection of his or her counsel. (Allen, at pp. 869-870.) Does that same balancing test preclude the state from proceeding with an initial SVPA commitment trial[2]while the defendant is incompetentthat is, unable, as a result of mental disorder or developmental disability, to understand the nature of the proceedings or to assist his or her counsel in the conduct of a defense in a rational manner? Although the issue is not free from doubt,[3]we believe the answer must be yes. The private interests at stake are high: a substantial limitation on the defendants liberty, the stigma of being classified as a sexually violent predator and subjection to unwanted treatment. The dignitary interest of the defendant subject to the SVPA commitment proceedinghis or her ability to be an active participant, rather than being relegated to the role of a mere spectatoris strong. And the risk of an erroneous finding that the defendant is a sexually violent predator and the probable value in reducing this risk by proceeding on an SVPA petition only against a competent defendant are at least as great as in Allen, in which the defendant sought to testify on his own behalf over the objection of his counsel in an SVPA extension proceeding. On the other hand, the states compelling interest in both protecting the public and providing appropriate treatment to those individuals found to be sexually violent predators will not be significantly burdened by a threshold requirement that defendants in initial SVPA proceedings be mentally competent.
Accordingly, we grant the petition for writ of mandate filed by Mark Richard Wilson and direct respondent Los Angeles Superior Court to suspend the SVPA commitment proceedings now pending against Wilson, to conduct a hearing to determine his ability to understand the nature of the proceedings and to rationally assist his counsel in the conduct of a defense and, if Wilson is not now competent, to order Wilson to remain in appropriate custody pending restoration of his competency.
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