People v. Henderson

We deal here with recently enacted legislation providing the mechanism to extend the commitments of certain mentally disordered sex offenders (MDSO). The defendant, committed as an MDSO, challenges the constitutionality of Welfare and Institutions Code section 6316.2 (Stats. 1977, ch. 164, § 3; all further statutory references are to sections of the Welfare and Institutions Code unless otherwise indicated); he aims his major thrust, however, at the permitted scope of expert testimony received at his trial conducted pursuant to section 6316.2. The trial resulted in a one-year extension of defendant's MDSO commitment. We shall affirm the judgment.

Defendant was charged by felony complaint filed August 11, 1975, with (1) forcing a minor to copulate him orally (Pen. Code, § 288a), (2) willfully causing a child to suffer unjustifiable physical pain and mental suffering under circumstances likely to produce great bodily injury and death (Pen. Code, § 273a, subd. (1)), and (3) assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury (Pen. Code, § 245, subd. (a)). These offenses were alleged to have been committed August 6, 1975, upon a four-year-old boy. Defendant…

We deal here with recently enacted legislation providing the mechanism to extend the commitments of certain mentally disordered sex offenders (MDSO). The defendant, committed as an MDSO, challenges the constitutionality of Welfare and Institutions Code section 6316.2 (Stats. 1977, ch. 164, § 3; all further statutory references are to sections of the Welfare and Institutions Code unless otherwise indicated); he aims his major thrust, however, at the permitted scope of expert testimony received at his trial conducted pursuant to section 6316.2. The trial resulted in a one-year extension of defendant’s MDSO commitment. We shall affirm the judgment.

Defendant was charged by felony complaint filed August 11, 1975, with (1) forcing a minor to copulate him orally (Pen. Code, § 288a), (2) willfully causing a child to suffer unjustifiable physical pain and mental suffering under circumstances likely to produce great bodily injury and death (Pen. Code, § 273a, subd. (1)), and (3) assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury (Pen. Code, § 245, subd. (a)). These offenses were alleged to have been committed August 6, 1975, upon a four-year-old boy. Defendant entered a…

I concur in the result.

The majority opinion labors to resolve issues concerning provisions of a statute not now in effect. Its precedential value must be discounted by its inapplicability to the legislation which now governs.

The opinion interprets criteria for extended commitment which have been significantly amended by legislation effective January 1, 1980. The opinion also rejects constitutional challenges to the MDSO statute on the basis of a standard of amenability for treatment which the Legislature intended to reject by the same legislation. In this posture the case lacks not only the concreteness of facts considered in the light of operative legislation, but also the “‘reasonable probability that the same questions will again be litigated and appealed,...’” (6 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (2d ed. 1971) Appeal, § 470, p. 4427, citing to People v. West Coast Shows (1970) 10 Cal.App.3d 462, 468 [ 89 Cal.Rptr. 290 ].)

The opinion interprets and considers the constitutionality of Welfare and Institutions Code section 6316.2, as added by Statutes 1977, chap *494 ter 164, section 3. The section, subsequently amended by Statutes 1978, chapter 1039, section 2, was to have expired by…