2025 Session Last amended: 2024 session

§ 253D.11 — Statewide Judicial Panel

Plain-Language Summary

This section allows the Minnesota Supreme Court to create a special panel of district court judges with statewide authority to hear sex offender civil commitment cases. These judges serve one-year terms, and a chief judge oversees the panel and assigns cases. If this panel is created, all commitment petitions must be filed with the Supreme Court rather than local district courts.

253D.11 STATEWIDE JUDICIAL PANEL.

Subdivision 1.Establishment.

The supreme court may establish a panel of district judges with statewide authority to preside over commitment proceedings of sexually dangerous persons or persons with sexual psychopathic personalities. Only one judge of the panel is required to preside over a particular commitment proceeding. Panel members shall serve for one-year terms. One of the judges shall be designated as the chief judge of the panel, and is vested with the power to designate the presiding judge in a particular case, to set the proper venue for the proceedings, and to otherwise supervise and direct the operation of the panel. The chief judge shall designate one of the other judges to act as chief judge whenever the chief judge is unable to act. §

Subd. 2.Petitions.

If the supreme court creates the judicial panel authorized by this section, all petitions for civil commitment of sexually dangerous persons or persons with sexual psychopathic personalities brought under section 253D.07 shall be filed with the supreme court instead of with the district court in the county where the proposed patient is present, notwithstanding any provision of section 253D.07 to the contrary. Otherwise, all of the other applicable procedures contained in this chapter and sections 253B.07 and 253B.08 apply to commitment proceedings conducted by a judge on the panel.

History:

1Sp1994 c 1 art 1 s 4; 1997 c 217 art 1 s 100; 2010 c 300 s 26; 2013 c 49 s 7,22; 2024 c 79 art 6 s 9

History: History: 1Sp1994 c 1 art 1 s 4; 1997 c 217 art 1 s 100; 2010 c 300 s 26; 2013 c 49 s 7,22; 2024 c 79 art 6 s 9

Practical Notes

This statewide panel structure helps ensure that judges handling these complex, specialized commitment cases have relevant expertise and consistent training. As a practical matter, this means that sex offender commitment cases may be heard by judges from outside the county where the person is located or where the offense occurred.

Source: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes