NH State Court withdraws psych drugging opinion

The New Hampshire state Supreme Court has withdrawn an opinion that said judges could order mentally ill suspects to take psychiatric drugs, because its opinion conflicted with a U.S. Supreme Court decision issued three days later. The state Supreme Court ruled in New Hampshire vs. Raymond Bahmer on June 13 that judges could order medication for mentally ill defendants for up to one year, if the treatment is likely to make them competent to stand trial.

Then on June 16, in the case of a mentally ill dentist, Charles Sell, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled defendants can be required to take psychiatric drugs only when there is no alternative treatment and when the government has a vital interest in prosecution. Even then, prosecutors must show the drugs are in the best medical interests of the suspect and unlikely to produce side effects that could hinder his ability to get a fair trial, the U.S. Supreme Court said. The federal court said such cases probably would be "rare."

Legal experts said the Sell decision would make it difficult to force medication on defendants - like Bahmer and Sell - who are not a danger to themselves or others and are not charged with violent crimes.