People v. Burnick

Opinion

MOSK, J.

Professor Wigmore perceptively observes that “The mental condition of one whose mind is so deranged as to require imprisonment for his own and others’ good is indeed pitiable. But the mental attitude of one who is falsely found insane and relegated to life imprisonment is [May 1975] *310beyond conception. No greater cruelty can be committed in the name of the law.” (5 Wigmore on Evidence (Chadbourn rev. 1974) § 1400, p. 201.)

Surely it is no less cruel to falsely find a man to be a “mentally disordered sex offender” and confine him indefinitely in a prison-like state mental…