State v. Alan Adin Randall, 222 Wis. 2d 53, 586 N.W.2d 318 (Ct. App. 1998)
For Randall: Waring Fincke
Issue/Holding:
Randall proposed to ask the jury, “Is there any medical justification for the Petitioner’s continued confinement at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute or any other in-patient mental health facility?” The trial court, holding that the State did not have to prove a therapeutic justification, refused to submit the requested instruction. Randall claims that the court’s refusal denied him due process of law….
… (B)ecause a Wisconsin insanity acquittee’s continued confinement is based on both an initial determination of the cause of his or her criminal conduct, as well as a finding of continued dangerousness, and because Wisconsin’s mental health institutions provide an environment designed to reduce dangerousness, no individual showing that confinement is necessary to address a particular medical treatment is required. This conclusion is also in accord with the United States Supreme Court’s recent decision in Kansas v. Hendricks, 521 U.S. 346, 117 S.Ct. 2072, 2084 (1998) (upholding the constitutionality of Kansas’s sexual predator law despite an acknowledged unavailability of effective treatment for pedophilia). In short, we conclude Randall I establishes that an insanity acquittee is afforded substantive due process by virtue of Wisconsin’s entire scheme.
