Court of Appeals of New York

In this combined litigation involving two sexual offenders diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), the Supreme Court's order finding mental abnormality within the meaning of Mental Hygiene Law article 10 (grounded in testimony concerning the sex crimes and in the ASPD diagnosis of defendants) in Matter of State of New York v. Donald DD. is reversed, and Matter of State of New York v. Kenneth T. is dismissed on grounds of legal insufficiency, where: 1) ASPD establishes only a general tendency toward criminality and has no necessary relationship to a difficulty in controlling one's sexual behavior; and 2) evidence that a sex offender suffers from ASPD cannot be used to support a finding that the sex offender has a mental abnormality as defined by Mental Hygiene Law article 10 when it is not accompanied by any other mental abnormality.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/28/2014
• Published 10/28/2014

Judges

• Pigott

Court

• Court of Appeals of New York

Counsel