Requirements for Forcibly Medicating a Defendant Found Incompetent to Stand Trial Delineated by Fourth Circuit
United States v. Evans, 404 F.3d 227 (4th Cir. 2005)
The U.S. Supreme Court in Se// v. United States, 539 U.S. 166 (2003), held that the government may involuntarily medicate a criminal defendant to render the defendant competent to stand trial even though the defendant does not pose a danger to self or others. The Supreme Court authorized such treatment under limited circumstances, but left it to the lower courts to flesh out the details of the requisite test. While reviewing a ruling by a federal judge in the Western District of Virginia, the Fourth Circuit provides many of these details...