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Late-Filed Civil Commitment Petition Requires Dismissal

By Jeremy Price

California Penal Code section 2960 et seq. provides for the civil commitment of certain mentally disordered offenders (MDOs) during and after their parole period. The MDO Act contains a number of statutorily created deadlines that govern the original commitment and extended commitment proceedings. In a unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court today ruled that Penal Code section 2972's requirement that an extended commitment petition must be filed prior to the expiration of an MDO's most recent commitment was mandatory. Therefore, in this case, the district attorney's failure to file such a timely petition deprived the trial court of jurisdiction and required dismissal of the MDO extended commitment petition. In so ruling, the Supreme Court rejected the Attorney General's contention that even if the filing deadline were mandatory, the trial court need only dismiss the petition if, under the particular facts of a given case, the missed filing deadline violated the MDO's due process rights...continue to full post

Full post as published by Criminal Appeal on August 14, 2007 (boomark / email).