U.S. v. Evans
| Decision Date | 12 April 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 04-4230.,04-4230. |
| Citation | 404 F.3d 227 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Herbert G. EVANS, Jr., Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Monroe Jamison, Jr., Abingdon, Virginia, for Appellant. Steven Randall Ramseyer, Assistant United States Attorney, Office of the United States Attorney, Abingdon, Virginia, for Appellee.
ON BRIEF:
John L. Brownlee, United States Attorney, Roanoke, Virginia, for Appellee.
Before WILLIAMS and MICHAEL, Circuit Judges, and Henry F. FLOYD, United States District Judge for the District of South Carolina, sitting by designation.
Vacated and remanded with instructions by published opinion. Judge WILLIAMS wrote the opinion, in which Judge MICHAEL and Judge FLOYD joined.
Herbert G. Evans, Jr. was indicted on federal charges of assaulting a United States agricultural employee and threatening to murder a United States judge. The district court found that Evans was incompetent to stand trial because of his paranoid schizophrenia. Evans refused treatment, and the Government moved to medicate him against his will to restore his competence so it could try him on the charges.
In Sell v. United States, 539 U.S. 166, 123 S.Ct. 2174, 156 L.Ed.2d 197 (2003), the Supreme Court held that the government may involuntarily medicate a defendant for the purpose of rendering him competent to stand trial if (1) the government has an "important" interest in trying him, (2) involuntary medication will "significantly further" that interest, (3) involuntary medication is "necessary" to further the government's interest, and (4) administration of the drugs is "medically appropriate." Id. at 2184-85. Applying this four-part test, the district court granted the Government's motion, and Evans now appeals.
For the reasons explained below, we hold that the district court correctly found that the Government's interest in prosecuting Evans is an "important" one. Evans is facing a serious charge with a statutory maximum punishment of ten years for threatening to murder a United States judge, and there are no special circumstances that undermine the Government's interest. We also hold that the district court erroneously concluded that the Government demonstrated that involuntary medication would "significantly further" its prosecutorial interest and was "medically appropriate." The Government failed to explain what specific medications it planned to give Evans and failed to examine these two factors with sufficient particularity. We therefore vacate the district court's order and remand for further proceedings with instructions to allow the parties to supplement the record in a manner consistent with this opinion.
On November 4, 2002, Evans, then a 74-year-old military veteran, entered the Rural Development Agency (RDA) office in Wytheville, Virginia to complain about a late-payment notice he received on a housing loan. The RDA, which is an arm of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), administered the loan. According to the RDA agent with whom Evans spoke, Evans became "extremely angry and loud," (J.A. at 12), and claimed that the late notices were evidence that the government was "out to get him." (J.A. at 11.) He told the agent that the "United States was heading toward communism" and that he had three crosses in his yard — "one for Ruby Ridge, one for Waco, and one for Oklahoma City." (J.A. at 11.) He said that he "had lived his life, and would not mind taking a few with [him]." (J.A. at 11.) Evans then stated that "he was experienced... with chemical and biological warfare and ... the [RDA should] get the situation straightened out with his loan [because]... they didn't [know what terrorism was] until they saw what he could do." (J.A. at 11-12.)
On November 14, 2002, Evans was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of "assault [ing], resist[ing], or [impeding] [an employee of the USDA]" under 18 U.S.C.A. § 111(a)(1) (West Supp.2004).1 On November 19, 2002, a magistrate judge held Evans's detention hearing. At the hearing, the magistrate judge granted the Government's motion for a psychiatric examination to determine Evans's competency to stand trial. Evans was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, N.C. (Butner), where medical staff evaluated him and prepared a competency report. Based on the report, the magistrate judge determined, on March 24, 2003, that Evans was incompetent to stand trial. The magistrate judge recommitted Evans to Butner for the purpose of evaluating whether Evans could attain competency in the foreseeable future.
At Butner, Evans refused antipsychotic medication, and the Butner staff set in motion administrative proceedings to determine the propriety of medicating him against his will. Before these proceedings concluded, the United States Supreme Court decided Sell v. United States, 539 U.S. 166, 123 S.Ct. 2174, 156 L.Ed.2d 197 (2003), which clarified the legal standard for administering involuntary medication to render a defendant competent to stand trial. On June 24, 2003, in response to Sell, the Government moved to allow the Butner staff to medicate Evans against his will.
On October 31, 2003, the magistrate judge held an evidentiary hearing, during which she accepted into evidence several reports prepared at Butner — specifically, Evans's competency report and the Butner staff's evaluation of whether Evans should be involuntarily medicated (IM report) — and testimony and a report from Evans's witness, Dr. Margaret Robbins, a forensic psychiatrist, also evaluating whether Evans should be involuntarily medicated. The Butner reports, which detailed Evans's medical history, concluded that Evans had been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia since at least 1966 and had last been medicated for his condition in 1984. As relevant here, the IM report stated conclusorily that second-generation, or atypical antipsychotic medications, which were created in the 1990s, would be "substantially likely" to allow Evans to attain competency to stand trial. (J.A. at 315.) In addition, it stated summarily that such medication would be "substantially unlikely to have side effects that will interfere significantly with [Evans's] ability to assist counsel in conducting a defense." (J.A. at 315.) Finally, it concluded that involuntary medication would be "medically appropriate" for Evans. (J.A. at 316.)
Despite extolling the virtues of the atypical antipsychotic medications, the IM report never actually stated that the Butner staff proposed to give Evans such treatment; in fact, the report did not specify any type of medication the staff planned to give Evans. Moreover, the IM report contained little analysis explaining the rationale for its conclusions. In concluding that antipsychotic medication was "substantially likely" to restore Evans's competency, the report generally stated that such medication was "[t]he primary [way to treat] Schizophrenia." (J.A. at 315.) Likewise, in concluding that such treatment was "substantially unlikely" to produce significant side effects, the report stated that atypical antipsychotic medications "have a more favorable side effect profile for many patients who were previously treated with conventional antipsychotic medication," (J.A. at 315), and that the side effects produced by the atypical antipsychotic medication "are routinely managed by thousands of American psychiatrists in daily clinical practice, who assess the risks and benefits of any particular medication in treating their patients." (J.A. at 315.) Finally, it concluded that involuntary medication was "medically appropriate" because "the standard treatment of anyone with [Evans's] condition of Schizophrenia would involve the prescription of antipsychotic medication." (J.A. at 316.)
Dr. Robbins's opinion, which was based on her review of Evans's medical records and an interview with him that lasted one and a half hours, was that Evans's delusional beliefs were "fixed." (J.A. at 101.) She concluded that because Evans did not want to be medicated, the medicine might calm him down, but his core delusions were "impervious to medication." (J.A. at 101.) She also opined that "in order to really assess whether... there would be side effects, [it would] be necessary to know specific medications that were proposed for administration." (J.A. at 107.) Finally, she testified that if she were treating Evans, she would not medicate him, although she admitted that she was "not sure that [she had] seen anything in the record that would suggest that [treatment without medication] would be successful." (J.A. at 123.)
On December 1, 2003, the magistrate judge denied the Government's motion to medicate Evans against his will. The magistrate judge found that the Government's interest in bringing Evans to trial was not important enough to outweigh Evans's liberty interest in avoiding involuntary medication because the maximum penalty for violating § 111(a) was less than the time Evans already had been confined. The magistrate judge scheduled a hearing for January 23, 2004 to determine whether Evans was dangerous and should therefore continue to be confined. Evans was then sent to New River Valley Regional Jail in Dublin, Virginia, to await the hearing.
The hearing did not occur. Instead, on January 23, 2004, the Government filed a criminal complaint against Evans charging him with violating 18 U.S.C.A. § 115(a)(1)(B) (West 2000) for "threaten[ing] to murder a United States judge, with intent to retaliate against such judge, on account of the performance of official duties."2 (J.A. at 167.) The affidavit submitted with the complaint alleged that, while incarcerated at New River Valley, Evans stated to fellow inmates that the magistrate...
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