By Matt Apuzzo, The Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Government officials can force a mentally ill inmate to take anti-psychotic drugs so he can stand trial, even if the drugs might impair a defense strategy, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
Aaron Gomes, a Connecticut man with a psychotic disorder, had argued that police planted a handgun on him as part of a government conspiracy. He’s unfit to stand trial but believes that medication will make it less likely he’ll want to pursue a conspiracy defense at trial.
In the first case on the issue since a historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that Gomes can be forced to take medication that would make him competent to stand trial, even if it jeopardizes that defense.
“Once his competence is restored, Gomes will be free to pursue a conspiracy defense at trial or to adopt another course,” Judge Dennis Jacobs wrote.
Defense attorney Jeremiah Donovan said the case is the first of what he expects will be many that clarify the circumstances under which defendants can be medicated against their will.
“What scares the life out of folks and what scares the life out of me is a government that can alter your mental state if it believes that mental state interferes with what it views as a fair trial,” Donovan said.
The Supreme Court ruled last year that defendants can be forced to take medication only when “important governmental interests are at stake.”
The appeals court agreed with a trial court judge who ruled that Gomes’ charges of handgun possession by a convicted felon were serious enough that the government had an important interest in bringing the case to trial.
The court did not, however, establish a rule for determining which charges meet that interest.
“That issue will be fleshed out,” U.S. Attorney Kevin O’Connor said. “But certainly it’s not the implication that every violation of federal law is an essential government case.”
Donovan said he mailed a motion Tuesday asking the court to stay the decision while he appeals the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.