In Re Smith

Under the Sexually Violent Predator Act (SVP Act), Welfare and Institutions Code section 6600 et seq., a person can be civilly committed as a sexually violent predator (SVP) at the conclusion of a felony prison term, provided he or she has prior convictions for certain sexually violent offenses and a jury finds the person has a mental disorder that makes it likely he or she will engage in sexually violent criminal behavior. In the present case, after SVP commitment proceedings were initiated against petitioner, the felony conviction that was the basis of his custody at the time these proceedings were commenced was reversed by this court on appeal. (People v. Smith (2004) 32 Cal.4th 792, 796-799 [ 11 Cal.Rptr.3d 290 , 86 P.3d 348 ] (Smith).) The prosecutor declined to retry him. The question this case poses is whether an SVP commitment can nonetheless proceed under these circumstances. In answering this question, we must construe language in section 6601, subdivision (a)(2), providing that an SVP petition “shall not be dismissed on the basis of a later judicial or administrative determination that the individual’s custody was unlawful, if the unlawful custody was the…