On Point blog, page 1 of 1
SCOW decides not to decide rules for involuntary medication to competency
State v. Wilson P. Anderson, 2023 WI 44, 6/2/23, summarily reversing an unpublished court of appeals decision; 2020AP819; case activity (including briefs)
As we’ve noted previously, the court of appeals (in the person of a single judge in District 1) decided this case shortly after the same court (by a three-judge panel of District 4) decided State v. Green, 2021 WI App 18, 396 Wis. 2d 658, 957 N.W.2d 583. Green reversed an order that a criminal defendant be involuntarily medicated to competency, relying on and fleshing out the factors established by Sell v. United States, 539 U.S. 166 (2003). In particular, Green required the state to file, for the court’s approval, an individualized treatment plan specifying medications and doses. (Green was then taken up by the supreme court, but its decision addressed other matters, leaving the court of appeals’ reading of Sell intact.) The D1 judge in Wilson’s case didn’t follow Green (or, as the state now concedes, Sell itself) and okayed a med order prepared by a psychologist with a generic recommendation that Wilson be medicated. The supreme court granted Wilson’s petition, and the state’s litigation position changed: it conceded in SCOW that it hadn’t met its burden under Sell. In briefing and argument, the only dispute between the parties was whether the testimony of a medical doctor is always necessary to satisfy Sell‘s requirements.
Defendant failed to show that schizophrenia and medication interfered with his plea
State v. Craig L. Miller, 2018AP2161-CR, 7/18/19, District 4 (1-judge opinion, ineligible for publication); case activity (including briefs)
Miller pled guilty to disorderly conduct as a domestic abuse incident and as a repeater. He appealed arguing that his plea was not knowing, intelligent and voluntary because of his schizophrenia diagnosis and the medication he was taking. The court of appeals ruled against him due to a lack of evidence.
Postconviction counsel may raise defendant’s competence to stand trial though trial court and trial counsel had no such concerns
State v. Jimmie Lee Smith, 2014 WI App 98, petition for review granted 6/12/15; case activity
If you’re working on a competency issue, read this decision. Neither the trial court nor defense counsel raised the subject of Smith’s competency at the time of trial. And Smith had not received a pre-trial competency exam. That’s why the postconviction court rejected Smith’s claim that he was incompetent at the time of trial. There was no contemporaneous evidence to support it. The court of appeals reversed, vacated the conviction, and remanded the case for a new trial.