MESSAGE BOARD: Crime and punishment

September 9, 1999
Web posted at: 3:52 p.m. EDT (1952 GMT)

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A federal judge has ordered Russell Weston, the man accused of killing two U.S. Capitol police officers last year, to be given anti-psychotic drugs against his will.

U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan issued the order despite defense objections that it is unethical to medically restore an incompetent defendant to competency to stand trial when that person faces the death penalty for his alleged crimes.

Sullivan stayed his order for one week to allow the defense to appeal his ruling if it chooses. There was no immediate word from the Federal Public Defender's Office about what it planned to do.

Weston, 42, is charged with murdering Capitol Police officers John Gibson and Jacob Chestnut in the Capitol on July 24, 1998.

Diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, Weston has told a government psychiatrist he attacked the officers because he believed they were cannibals.

He has been at the Federal Corrections Center in Butner, North Carolina, since May 5, when Sullivan determined he was incompetent to stand trial.

Since then, Weston has refused to take the anti-psychotic drugs and his condition has worsened steadily, according to Dr. Sally Johnson who testified in May that "there is no likelihood he (Weston) would gain competency without medications."

In issuing his order, Sullivan side-stepped two critical -- and potentially appealable -- legal arguments about the fairness and ethical propriety of medicating the former Montana resident.

Instead, the judge focused on the need to medicate Weston to render him non-dangerous to himself and others.

Prosecutors had argued the government's fundamental interest in bringing Weston to trial was reason enough to medicate him.

Sullivan wrote "if treatment is justified on dangerous grounds, the Court need not reach the issue whether the defendant may be treated `solely' to render him competent to stand trial."

Defense lawyers had accused the government of wanting to restore Weston to competency to start a process that could lead to Weston's execution.

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