Gagnon

The petitioner, Scott A. Gagnon, adjudged a sexually dangerous person in 1980, and committed to the treatment center at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Bridgewater (center) for an indeterminate period of from one day to life, filed a petition for discharge pursuant to G. L. c. 123A, § 9 (1988 ed.).1 At the evidentiary hearing held on his petition, the petitioner claimed to be entitled, on constitutional grounds, to decision by a jury whether he continued to be a sexually dangerous person. A judge in the Superior Court rejected this claim and denied the petition. The judge found…