By: Derek Hawkins//May 31, 2016//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Scott R. Schmidt v. Deborah McCulloch
Case No.: 14-3651
Officials: POSNER, WILLIAMS, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges
Focus: Ineffective Assistance of Counsel – Due Process
Evidence and testimony sufficient to warrant commitment of Appellant.
“Given the uncertainties regarding the efficacy of treatment of psychopathic sex offenders, Dr. Snyder may be right or wrong concerning the defendant’s prospects for being cured, but he was a qualified expert witness and we do not understand Schmidt to be arguing that a reasonable jury could not have believed Snyder’s testimony. The first-person statements that Schmidt challenges illustrate the psychopathic traits that Snyder described, so they were pertinent to the jury’s evaluation of whether Schmidt’s predisposition to commit sexual offenses had changed in the preceding twenty years and whether the sex-offender treatment that he had undergone was likely to have reduced his risk of re-offense. And since Schmidt did not testify, the jury wasn’t given a current view of his perspective on his behavior. And finally even studies that have found positive effects of sex-offender treatment acknowledge that a significant number of the treated offenders re-offend. See id. The uncertainty is especially great with respect to offenders who have mental disorders similar to Schmidt’s. See Dennis M. Doren and Pamela M. Yates, “Effectiveness of Sex Offender Treatment for Psychopathic Sexual Offenders,” 52 International J. Offender Therapy & Comparative Criminology 234, 243 (2008).”
Affirmed