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Court Restores Rights to Mentally Ill

(June 16, 2003) Today the Supreme Court decided 6-3 that nonviolent defendants could not be involuntarily medicated to stand trial. This decision reverses the lower courts ruling. Tony Hileman, executive director for the American Humanist Association stated, “The former policy of forcibly drugging the nonviolent stripped individuals of their constitutional rights solely on the basis of indictment. By stopping this procedure the Court restores those rights.”

Writing for the majority, Justice Stephen G. Breyer explained that this standard will still permit involuntary administration of drugs solely for trial competence purposes in certain instances where the defendant has been shown to be dangerous.

Dentist Charles T. Sell, accused of Medicare fraud, has been considered mentally ill by doctors and lawyers, but he was charged with nonviolent offenses and not ruled as a danger to others by the court. Yet lawyers wanted to drug him in hopes he would achieve competence for trial. Sell claimed that it was his constitutional right to keep mind-altering substances out of his body.

Inappropriately treated as a dangerous defendant, Sell was held longer than if he had been convicted on all named counts of Medicaid fraud of which he was accused.

Fortunately, the decision will change the policy of the court system, insisting on a more thorough investigation of the mental health of the accused to determine whether the person is a threat to himself or the court before considering the administration of drugs.

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