In re the Detention of Emery E. Darling

Summary

The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed Emery E. Darling's commitment as a sexually violent predator under Iowa Code chapter 229A. The court held that pedophilia, rather than Darling's mental retardation, supported commitment and that limited amenability to traditional sex-offender treatment did not preclude commitment. It also rejected his statutory and substantive due process claims, concluding that individualized treatment could be provided and that civil confinement was permissible to protect the public.

Holdings

1. A person may be committed under Iowa Code chapter 229A when the qualifying mental abnormality is pedophilia, even if the person also has mental retardation and is unlikely to benefit from traditional cognitive behavioral therapy.
2. Chapter 229A does not require that treatment ultimately be successful as a prerequisite for commitment, so long as the State will individualize a treatment program to the respondent's abilities.
3. Substantive due process does not bar civil confinement of a sexually violent predator whose condition may be untreatable when confinement is necessary to protect the public.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Iowa Code chapter 229A permits commitment of a person who is mentally retarded and unlikely to benefit from traditional cognitive behavioral sex-offender therapy.
2. Whether Darling's commitment under chapter 229A violated his statutory right to treatment.
3. Whether confinement under chapter 229A violated substantive due process because Darling's mental retardation made effective treatment of his pedophilia unlikely.
4. Whether Darling should instead have been committed under Iowa Code chapter 222, governing civil commitment of persons with mental retardation.

Disposition

affirmed