Wednesday, November 2, 2005 · Last updated 8:07 p.m. PT

Lawyers fight for release of sex criminals

By SAMUEL MAULL
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

NEW YORK -- Lawyers for 12 sex criminals who are being held in mental hospitals after their prison sentences ended complained to a judge Wednesday that the state is holding them illegally, a charge the state's lawyer denied.

The sex offenders were ordered held by Gov. George Pataki, who had sought for years to get a law passed that would allow civil confinement of sex offenders when their sentences end.

Pataki's plan extends the state's involuntary commitment law, normally used for the mentally ill, to sexual predators. It requires offenders nearing the end of their sentences to undergo an evaluation to determine if they are a public safety risk.

Assistant Attorney General Edward J. Curtis said that before the end of the sex offenders' sentences, prison superintendents applied for orders of confinement, and got opinions from two psychiatrists saying each inmate needed to be hospitalized.

Curtis said a third psychiatrist, at the hospital, also examines the inmate.

Sadie Ishee, lawyer for Mental Hygiene Legal Services, said that did not satisfy state law, which she said requires court supervision and notification of patients' lawyers.

The judge reserved decision on the inmates' petition.

Pataki, considering a run for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, ordered state officials in September to look at the state's nearly 5,000 imprisoned sex offenders before their release to see if they should be civilly confined.