ST. PAUL (AP) — The state Supreme Court will consider for the third time the case of sexual predator Dennis Linehan on Wednesday.
The U.S. Supreme Court returned the case after ruling on a similar Kansas case last year. Oral arguments before the state’s high court were scheduled for 10 a.m.
The state Supreme Court has already upheld the state’s Sexually Dangerous Persons Act, under which Linehan was committed.
Linehan, a convicted rapist and confessed killer, has been committed indefinitely to the Minnesota Sexual Psychopathic Personality Treatment Center in Moose Lake.
The state court upheld the sexual predator law in December 1996, and Linehan’s attorney appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In June, the nation’s high court upheld a Kansas law allowing that state to keep violent sexual predators locked up after they serve their prison sentences even if they are not mentally ill.
Linehan’s attorney, Eric Janus, said last year the Supreme Court ruling might apply in his client’s case. Kansas requires offenders be unable to control themselves before they are committed, while Minnesota’s law allows commitment of people who are able — but unwilling — to control themselves.
Linehan has been confined for nearly 32 years since admitting to the 1965 kidnap-slaying of 14-year-old Barbara Iversen of Shoreview. He has a long history of rape, including raping a 12-year-old Michigan girl during a brief prison escape in 1975.
In 1994, the state Supreme Court reversed his commitment, saying it hadn’t been proven that Linehan was unable to control his sexual impulses. The court pointed out that some of Linehan’s crimes had been planned, implying he exercised some power over his urges.
After that ruling, the Legislature met in special session and passed a law that removed the burden of proving that a sex offender was unable to control his or her impulses. Prosecutors can argue instead that someone is able but unwilling to control behavior.