Wednesday, March 05, 2003
 

MAKING CRIMINAL SUSPECTS SANE

March 5. The US Supreme Court appears ready to hear arguments in the case of a Missouri dentist, Charles Sell. (Sell v. US, 02-5664)

Sell is charged with insurance fraud, and with attempted murder of a witness and an FBI agent who arrested him.

For the past four years, the dentist has been in a nut house awaiting trial. He has been diagnosed with a delusional disorder, and apparently his own lawyer says that Sell is off his rocker---and is incompetent to stand trial.

The issue is, Sell has been refusing anti-psychotic medicine. So I guess he isn’t completely mad.

Can the state force him to take these drugs, as a way of making him competent to go to trial? That’s what is on the table before the Supreme Court.

One disturbing statement in the AP report on the situation: “Sell’s case raises questions that could apply more broadly to, for example, government programs requiring vaccinations against anthrax or school mandates that children with hyperactivity or attention deficit disorder take drugs to remain in class.”

Boom.

Sell, of course, could incur brain damage from the anti-psychotic drugs, or he could emerge in a state of the mind that the State decides is sane enough to face his day in court. And who knows, brain damage and sanity might, in the State’s interpretation, amount to the same thing.

Retired propaganda pro Ellis Medavoy commented to me, “Keep your eye on this case. They could try to set a precedent here that will strengthen the State’s position as arbiter of all sorts of forced medical treatment. It’s a window of opportunity for them. If they win, they’ll rig future regulations so that victims of these mandated toxic treatments can’t sue the government for adverse effects incurred, or can only get a cap of $250,000 in damages. And if THAT works, the next step will be to cap damage awards in suits against pharmaceutical companies. These people don’t go away. They keep chipping at the stone.”

JON RAPPOPORT www.stratiawire.com