State Ex Rel. Romley v. Superior Court

OPINION

EHRLICH, Judge.

¶ 1 The State seeks special-action relief from the ruling of the superior court that an eight-person jury must reach a unanimous verdict to commit Joel Dee Clements as a sexually violent person in accord with Arizona’s Sexually Violent Persons Act (“Act”). Ariz.Rev.Stat. Ann. (“A.R.S.”) § 36-3701 et seq. We conclude that the court erred in deciding that the Act’s evidentiary standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt” requires a unanimous verdict in a civil case. Therefore, by previous order, we have accepted jurisdiction and granted the relief requested by the State,…