USA v. Weston, 99-3119

• Decision Date: 24 March 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-3119,99-3119
• Citation: 206 F.3d 9
• Parties: (D.C. Cir. 2000) United States of America, Appellee v. Russell Eugene Weston, Jr., Appellant
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Page 9

206 F.3d 9 (D.C. Cir. 2000)

United States of America, Appellee v. Russell Eugene Weston, Jr., Appellant

No. 99-3119

United States Court of Appeals FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT

Argued December 6, 1999

Decided March 24, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 98cr00357-01)

Gregory L. Poe, Assistant Federal Public Defender, argued the cause for the appellant. A. J. Kramer, Federal Public Defender, and L. Barrett Boss, Assistant Federal Public Defender, were on brief for the appellant.

David B. Goodhand, Assistant United States Attorney, argued the cause for the appellee. Wilma A. Lewis, United States Attorney, and John R. Fisher and Erik P. Christian, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on brief for the appellee.

Before: Henderson, Rogers and Tatel, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the court filed Per Curiam.

Circuit Judge Henderson filed a separate concurring opinion.

Circuit Judge Rogers filed a separate concurring opinion.

Circuit Judge Tatel filed a separate concurring opinion.

Per Curiam:

Appellant Russell Eugene Weston Jr. appeals the district court's order authorizing the Bureau of Prisons (Bureau) to forcibly medicate Weston with anti-psychotic drugs based on the Bureau's determination that the treatment is medically appropriate and essential for Weston's safety and for the safety of others. Because the district court's order relied on testimony supporting forced medication for the purpose of making Weston competent to stand trial, an additional justification which the Bureau advanced but the district court found unnecessary to reach, we reverse the district court and remand for consideration of both of the Bureau's justifications.

On October 9, 1998 Weston, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, was charged in a six count indictment with the July 24, 1998 murder of two United States Capitol Police officers and the attempted murder of a third.¹ On April 22, 1999 the district court found Weston, who is confined at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina (Butner), incompetent to stand trial and committed him for treatment to restore his competency pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4241(d).The incompetency order provided that, should medical personnel conclude anti-psychotic injections were warranted, the Bureau could seek involuntary medication authorization in accordance with "the administrative procedures under 28 C.F.R. § 543 [sic],² provided that counsel for Mr. Weston receive reasonable notice before a hearing commences." Appendix vol. i (App. i) 47. The order further directed: "No administration of psychotropic medications to defendant against his will shall occur without the prior approval of this Court in a written Order;...." Id.

On May 13, 1999 the Bureau conducted an involuntary medication hearing without notifying Weston's counsel. Weston was represented at the hearing by Ray Pitcairn, the Day Watch Nursing Supervisor at Butner. Following the presentation of evidence the hearing officer, Bryon Herbel, M.D., a psychiatrist, determined Weston should be forcibly medicated. Butner's warden affirmed the determination. The district court held a hearing on May 28, 1999 to review the Bureau's decision and in an order dated June 18, 1999 remanded the matter to the Bureau because Weston's counsel had not been notified of the hearing in accordance with the April 22, 1999 incompetency order and because the Bureau had neither sought nor presented at the hearing evidence favorable to Weston.

The Bureau conducted a second hearing before Dr. Herbel on July 8, 1999. Weston was again represented by Pitcairn who presented the written report of Weston's expert witness, Raquel E. Gur, M.D., also a psychiatrist. In addition, Pitcairn offered arguments suggested to him by Weston's counsel, who were not themselves permitted to attend the hearing. The government offered the expert testimony of Sally C. Johnson, M.D., Associate Warden for Health Services at Butner and Weston's treating psychiatrist. At the conclusion Dr. Herbel determined Weston "suffer[s] from a mental illness, and that medication is an appropriate treatment for [his] illness, and that [he] can be treated against [his] will."App. ii 90-91. He explained his decision to Weston as follows:

The reason is that you are gravely disabled, you pose a risk of dangerousness to others and to yourself without treatment, and that you need to become competent to stand trial, and that no other inter--less intrusive intervention will be successful for them.

Id. at 91. Weston appealed to the warden who again affirmed the hearing officer, stating:

Medical staff have diagnosed you with Schizophrenia, Paranoid Type, Chronic. The record indicates that you experience a variety of grandiose and paranoid delusions including a belief that you are able to reverse time, and that people who are killed are not really dead. Such delusions have caused you to be dangerous to others, and potentially to yourself, gravely disabled, and incompetent for trial. This conclusion is supported by the record. Mental Health staff have determined that you suffer from a mental disease which may be treated with psycho-tropic medication, and restore your competency for trial. Therefore, your appeal is denied and staff may proceed accordingly.

App. ii. 3.

On August 20, 1999 the district court held a second judicial review hearing. In a decision dated September 9, 1999 the court upheld the Bureau's decision to medicate Weston on the ground that "the proposed medication is medically appropriate and that, considering less intrusive alternatives, it is essential for the defendant's own safety or the safety of others." United States v. Weston, 69 F. Supp. 2d 99, 118 (D.D.C. 1999). The court declined to review the Bureau's additional justification, that medication was necessary to render Weston competent for trial, or to address Weston's claim that forced medication would infringe his Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial. These two issues, the court found, were not then ripe "where the defendant has not yet been arraigned and where there is no record evidence to suggest that the government's medical reasons are pretextual." Id. at 107. In the court's opinion the issues could adequately be addressed later "[in] the event that medication successfully renders the defendant competent to stand trial." Id. Weston contends the Bureau's decision is unsupported by the record and that the Sixth Amendment argument is now ripe for resolution. We agree on both points.

As an initial matter, Weston asserts the district court applied the wrong standards in reviewing the Bureau's determination "that anti-psychotic medication is medically appropriate and that, considering less intrusive alternatives, it is essential for the defendant's own safety or the safety of others." 69 F. Supp. 2d at 118. Following the Supreme Court's opinion in Washington v. Harper, 494 U.S. 210, 223 (1990), the district court reviewed the Bureau's medical/safety justification substantively under a "reasonableness" standard, see 69 F. Supp. 2d at 116-18, and procedurally under the Administrative Procedure Act's "arbitrary and capricious" test, see 69 F. Supp. 2d at 107 (citing 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A)).Weston maintains that the Supreme Court's decision in Riggins v. Nevada, 504 U.S. 127 (1992), in which the court considered forced medication of a detainee, as here, rather than of a convicted inmate, as in Harper, requires instead review under the "strict scrutiny" and "de novo" standards. It is true the Riggins Court recognized that decisions affecting a detainee's trial rights may warrant closer scrutiny than those made for inmates who have already been tried and convicted. See 504 U.S. at 135. ("Under Harper, forcing anti-psychotic drugs on a convicted prisoner is impermissible absent a finding of overriding justification and a determination of medical appropriateness. The Fourteenth Amendment affords at least as much protection to persons the State detains for trial.") (emphasis added; citations omitted). The Court, however, declined to clarify the standards of review for detainees. The opinion makes no mention of the applicable procedural standard and the Court found "no occasion to finally prescribe ... substantive standards." Id. at 136. We likewise need not decide the issue at this point, given the lack of support for the district court's medical/safety determination, preferring instead to await the district court's findings on remand using the guidance that Riggins provides.

In Riggins the Supreme Court overturned the Nevada state court conviction of a defendant who had been involuntarily medicated during trial. The Court acknowledged, as did the district court below, that involuntary medication may be justified by medical/safety concerns and might be justified by the need to render a defendant competent for trial:

Nevada certainly would have satisfied due process if the prosecution had demonstrated, and the District Court had found, that treatment with anti-psychotic medication was medically appropriate and, considering less intrusive alternatives, essential for the sake of Riggins' own safety or the safety of others. See Harper, supra, 494 U.S., at 225-226, 110 S.Ct., at 1039; cf. Addington v. Texas, 441U.S. 418, 99 S.Ct. 1804, 60 L.Ed.2d 323 (1979) (Due Process Clause allows civil commitment of individuals shown by clear and convincing evidence to be mentally ill and dangerous). Similarly, the State might have been able to justify medically appropriate, involuntary treatment with the drug by establishing that it could not obtain an adjudication of Riggins' guilt or innocence by using less intrusive means. See Illinois v. Allen, 397U.S. 337, 347, 90 S.Ct. 1057, 1063, 25 L.Ed.2d 353 (1970)(Brennan, J., concurring) ("Constitutional power to bring an accused to trial is fundamental to a scheme of 'ordered liberty' and prerequisite to social justice and...