In re Civil Commitment of Trifari

MENZA, J.D.C.

(temporarily assigned).

This case involves the novel question of whether the prosecutor should be permitted to appear and be heard in a periodic review hearing of a patient civilly committed to a state hospital as a condition of parole.

On October 21, 1963 Gabriel Trifari was convicted of the murder of his father and brother and at the same time was acquitted, by reason of insanity, of the murder of his mother and sister. He was sentenced on November 21,1963 to consecutive terms of 15 to 30 years of imprisonment for each of the murders for which he was convicted. At the same time…