Markey v. Wachtel

Miller, Justice:

In State ex rel. Hawks v. Lazaro, _ W.Va. _, 202 S.E.2d 109 (1974), we set forth a number of due process rights which must be accorded adults who are faced *47with involuntary commitment to mental hospitals.1 In the four consolidated cases now before us,2 we are asked to further hold that such persons shall be accorded the right to a jury trial. We decline to do so.

The argument is advanced that our constitutional language that “[n]o person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, and the judgment of his peers,”3 goes beyond the protection…