Mental Health Advocacy Clinic Victories
The Mental Health Advocacy Clinic obtained favorable rulings recently in two of its cases. Read on for the Clinic's account of these two victories.
On January 23, 2015, Circuit Judge Gregory Ginex granted a Writ of Habeas Corpus and ordered the release from Elgin Mental Health Center of our client SM. SM had been committed following his acquittal by reason of insanity. The law governing the commitment of insanity acquittees, 730 ILCS 5/5-2-4, places a limit on the duration of these very restrictive commitments. This limit is related to the maximum sentence which the defendant would have received had he been convicted. Mental Health Project student Kathleen Kinsella ‘16, discovered that the calculation of this limit contained in our client’s commitment order was substantially incorrect. Rather than lasting until January, 2018, as stated in the order, it should have expired in November, 2013. The error and the correct calculation were spelled out in the habeas petition drafted and filed by Ms. Kinsella. After reading her petition, the State’s Attorney of Cook County agreed that our client’s commitment had expired. The court also agreed and issued the writ. Staff at Elgin MHC evaluated our client and determined that he did not meet the criteria for an ordinary civil commitment. Thus, SM was released on January 23rd and has gone home to his family.
ANOTHER MENTAL HEALTH PROJECT VICTORY
It appears we are becoming the "sentencing project" for people with mental illnesses. We just learned that the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed our earlier trial-court victory in People v. Steele-Kumi, 10 CR 2020301 (Cir. Ct. Cook Cty). Our client was charged with two counts of aggravated battery and acquitted by reason of insanity. She was then committed under the special law governing the confinement of insanity acquittees (usually called "NGRIs" in Illinois), 730 ILCS 5/5-2-4. The court was then required to determine the maximum period of confinement. The court did this incorrectly, basing its calculation on the time the defendant would have served if she had received consecutive sentences for these two distinct offenses. Such consecutive sentencing would have been appropriate if our client had been convicted. However, the NGRI commitment law states that the maximum length of commitment must be based upon the "most serious crime" of which the defendant was acquitted, with the word "crime" stated in the singular. Therefore, based upon memoranda written by Max Snow '13 and Jeff Levine '15, the trial court amended its commitment order and cut our client's commitment period in half. This resulted in our client being released in 2014, rather than 2017.
The State's Attorney of Cook County appealed. The Illinois Appellate Court has now affirmed that decision, agreeing with our interpretation of the law and that of the lower court. The Appellate Court brief was written by Jeff Levine '15. People v. Steele-Kumi, 2014 Ill. App. (1st) 133068, 2014 Ill. App. LEXIS 794 (2014).