Former New York Governor George Pataki is expected to testify about how more than 100 sex offenders came to be involuntarily institutionalized eight years ago when they finished prison sentences.
Today's testimony comes in a civil trial in Manhattan federal court after six convicted sex offenders sued Pataki and the state. Pataki announced in an October 2005 press release that every sexually violent predator in state custody would be evaluated for involuntary civil commitment once a prison sentence was finished.
A year later, the program was discontinued after a state court ruled the state was wrongly confining convicted sex offenders in psychiatric facilities.
Pataki lawyer Abbe Lowell has urged jurors to award the plaintiffs nothing, saying his client acted honorably to protect the public.
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