State v. Muncie

• Decision Date: 23 May 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-942.,00-942.
• Citation: 91 Ohio St.3d 440,746 NE 2d 1092
• Parties: THE STATE OF OHIO, APPELLEE, v. MUNCIE, APPELLANT.
• Court: Ohio Supreme Court

91 Ohio St.3d 440

746 NE 2d 1092

THE STATE OF OHIO, APPELLEE, v. MUNCIE, APPELLANT.

No. 00-942.

Supreme Court of Ohio.

Submitted February 6, 2001.

Decided May 23, 2001.

Donald W. White, Clermont County Prosecuting Attorney, and David H. Hoffmann, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee.

Rosenhoffer, Nichols & Schwartz and James A. Hunt, for appellant.

A.J. Stephani, Executive Director, Glenn Weaver Institute of Law and Psychiatry, urging reversal for amicus curiae Glenn Weaver Institute of Law and Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati School of Law.

Michael K. Allen, Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney, and Paula E. Adams, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, urging affirmance for amicus. curiae Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys' Association.

COOK, J.

The court of appeals in this case determined that it lacked jurisdiction to review a "Forced Medication Order" that had been issued by the trial court in an effort to restore appellant's competency to stand trial. The court of appeals dismissed appellant's appeal from that order, deciding that it was not final and appealable under R.C. 2505.02. Because we hold that the trial court's forced medication order was indeed a "final order" under R.C. 2505.02(B)(4), we reverse.

I. Background

After allegedly mailing a threatening letter to a Clermont County Municipal Court judge, appellant Donald Muncie was arrested and indicted for retaliation in violation of R.C. 2921.05(A). The trial court held a competency hearing on June 10, 1999. In an amended entry filed June 28, 1999, the trial court found Muncie incompetent to stand trial and committed him to the Twin Valley Psychiatric Center ("Twin Valley") in Montgomery County for restorative treatment. In a later entry, the trial court indicated that it had issued this commitment order under R.C. 2945.38.¹ Craig L. Ross, Jr., the Legal Assurance Administrator at Twin Valley, wrote a letter to the trial court dated July 12, 1999, requesting permission to forcibly medicate Muncie. In this letter, Ross stated that Muncie had not cooperated with treatment efforts at Twin Valley and was refusing to take his prescribed medication. Ross indicated that, according to Muncie's treating psychiatrist, Muncie could be restored to competency if he received five to thirty milligrams of Olanzapine per day, eight to sixty-four milligrams of Trilafon per day, one to ten milligrams of Ativan per day, and two hundred fifty to four thousand milligrams of Depakote per day. According to amicus curiae Glenn Weaver Institute of Law and Psychiatry ("Glenn Weaver"), Olanzapine and Trilafon are antipsychotic drugs, Ativan is a sedative used to treat anxiety and insomnia, and Depakote is an anticonvulsant used to control manic episodes associated with bipolar disorder. The state does not dispute these characterizations of the drugs, which are supported by excerpts from the Physician Desk Reference that Muncie attached as an exhibit to a supplemental filing in the trial court.

Two days after receiving Ross's petition for forced medication, the trial court entered a "Forced Medication Order." In this order, the court found that "it is in the best interest of the Defendant, based upon the recommendation of his treating psychiatrist, to be administered, forcibly if necessary," the four drugs listed in Ross's July 12 letter.² The court also authorized Twin Valley personnel to forcibly medicate Muncie with any drugs necessary to ameliorate deleterious side effects resulting from the administration of the four specified drugs. The court mailed its forced medication order to the parties' attorneys, attaching a letter from the court dated July 14, 1999. In this letter, the trial judge indicated to counsel that he had consulted with Ross at Twin Valley before issuing the forced medication order and that Ross had confirmed the court's belief that no hearing was required prior to issuing the order.

On July 16, Muncie filed a "Motion to Reconsider Order for Forced Medication" in the common pleas court. In this motion, Muncie requested that the court stay its forced medication order pending appeal, should his motion for reconsideration be overruled. The trial court overruled Muncie's motion for reconsideration and motion for stay. On July 28, Muncie appealed to the Clermont County Court of Appeals.

Muncie filed a motion requesting the court of appeals to stay the trial court's forced medication order pending appeal. The state filed objections to this motion and moved to dismiss Muncie's appeal for lack of a final appealable order. The court of appeals denied both Muncie's requested stay and the state's motion to dismiss. The court of appeals declined to dismiss Muncie's appeal for lack of jurisdiction at that juncture, but permitted the state to raise the issue of appealability again in its merit brief.

On January 11, 2000, after the parties had filed their merit briefs in the court of appeals, the trial court found Muncie competent to stand trial. The trial court ordered Muncie to remain hospitalized until trial and to continue taking his medication. On February 2, Muncie entered a plea of no contest to the charge of retaliation. On February 10, 2000, the trial court sentenced Muncie to five years of community control. As components of this sentence, the trial court ordered Muncie to complete the Tender Mercies Residential Program and to take all medications as directed by his physician.

On April 4, 2000, the court of appeals unanimously dismissed Muncie's appeal for lack of a final appealable order. The court of appeals observed that the trial court's forced medication order, issued without a hearing, raised significant due process concerns. Even so, the court of appeals concluded that the forced medication order was not a final order for purposes of R.C. 2505.02(B), and that it lacked jurisdiction "to legally resolve the important constitutional arguments in appellant's appeal."

On September 20, 2000, this court allowed Muncie's discretionary appeal, but only as to Muncie's first proposition of law—to determine whether an order authorizing the forced medication of an incompetent defendant is a final appealable order. State v. Muncie (2000), 90 Ohio St.3d 1417, 735 N.E.2d 456.³

II. Analysis

R.C. 2953.02 authorizes appellate courts to review, in criminal cases, "the judgment or final order" of an inferior court. This court has previously determined that, in order to decide whether an order issued by a trial court in a criminal proceeding is a reviewable final order, appellate courts should apply the definitions of "final order" contained in R.C. 2505.02. See State ex rel. Leis v. Kraft (1984), 10 Ohio St.3d 34, 36, 10 OBR 237, 239, 460 N.E.2d 1372, 1374. In 1997, this court invited the General Assembly to consider modifying R.C. 2505.02. See Walters v. The Enrichment Ctr. of Wishing Well, Inc. (1997), 78 Ohio St.3d 118, 122-123, 676 N.E.2d 890, 894, fn. 2. The following year, the General Assembly amended the statute. See Sub.H.B. No. 394, 147 Ohio Laws, Part II, 3277-3278. Applying our precedent and amended R.C. 2505.02, the Clermont County Court of Appeals decided that the forced medication order issued by the trial court in this case was not a final and appealable order. For the reasons that follow, we disagree.

State v. Hunt

The court of appeals noted that, in State v. Hunt (1976), 47 Ohio St.2d 170, 1 O.O.3d 99, 351 N.E.2d 106, syllabus, this court held that an order finding a defendant incompetent and committing him to a state hospital under R.C. 2945.38 was not a final appealable order. Without elaboration, the court of appeals decided: "If a finding of competence or incompetence is not a final appealable order, it logically follows that an order of forced medication in an attempt to restore competency is not a final appealable order."

We are unpersuaded by the court of appeals' analogy to Hunt. A commitment order and forced medication order are superficially similar, in that both orders arise from proceedings under R.C. 2945.38 and implicate an incompetent defendant's liberty interest and right to due process of law. See Lagway v. Dallman (N.D.Ohio 1992), 806 F.Supp. 1322, 1332-1333 (noting that R.C. 2945.37 and 2945.38 "create an expectation protected by the Due Process Clause"); see, also, Riggins v. Nevada (1992), 504 U.S. 127, 133-134, 112 S.Ct. 1810, 1814, 118 L.Ed.2d 479, 488 (citing Washington v. Harper [1990], 494 U.S. 210, 229, 110 S.Ct. 1028, 1041, 108 L.Ed.2d 178, 203, for the proposition that an individual's interest in avoiding the involuntary administration of antipsychotic drugs is protected under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment).

But the commitment order issued by the trial court in Hunt merely directed authorities to transfer Hunt—an illiterate individual who suffered from hearing and speech impairments—to an institution where his communication skills could be improved. Hunt, 47 Ohio St.2d at 171,1 O.O.3d at 99,351 N.E.2d at 107. Orders of forced medication, however, do not necessarily follow from orders of commitment and are designed to do far more than merely restrict an incompetent defendant's freedom of movement. The United States Supreme Court has noted that the forcible injection of antipsychotic medications into a nonconsenting individual's body represents a "particularly severe" interference with the interests protected by the Due Process Clause. Riggins, 504 U.S. at 134,112 S.Ct. at 1814,118 L.Ed.2d at 488. Orders authorizing the involuntary administration of antipsychotic medications permit authorities to alter the cognitive processes occurring in the committed defendant's brain, against his or her will, using drugs that carry with them the possibility of severe, debilitating, and/or permanent side effects. Id. at 134, 112 S.Ct. at 1814-1815, 118 L.Ed.2d at 488-489; see, also, Steele v. Hamilton Cty. Community Mental Health Bd. (2000), 90 Ohio St.3d 176, 181-182, 736 N.E.2d 10, 16 (noting...