In May of 1997, Charles Thomas Sell, a dentist working in St. Louis, Missouri, was accused of multiple forms of medical fraud. He and his employees altered dental records and x-rays of their patients and submitted them to insurance companies, seeking payment for procedures they never performed to fix problems that never existed. Sell was deemed competent to stand trial and was charged with 56 counts of mail fraud, six counts of medicaid fraud, and one count of money laundering.
Sell, as Justice Breyer noted in his majority opinion, had a “long and unfortunate history of mental illness” (Sell, 2003, p. 170). In the 1980s, for example, he called 911, telling the police he witnessed a leopard boarding a bus and proceeded to make suicide threats. In addition to his suicidal ideation and hallucination, Sell had a history of persecutory delusions. The gold he used for fillings in his dental practice, he believed, was contaminated by communists and he often feared that FBI agents were out to kill him. Elements of grandiosity could be seen in Sell’s delusions as well, saying in April 1997 that “‘God told me every [Federal Bureau of Investigation] person I kill, a soul will be saved’” (Breneman, 2004). Despite his history of more grossly psychotic features, both a government and independent court-ordered psychiatrist diagnosed Sell with a delusional disorder.
After his indictment, Sell was released on bail. By January 1998, however, the government soon sought to invoke his bail, claiming he had attempted to intimidate a witness in the trial. At the hearing, Sell exhibited a clearly deteriorated mental condition, acting in a violent and unorganized manner, spitting at the judge and shouting racial epithets. The court ordered him detai...
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...92‘s Riggins v. Nevada, and 1990‘s Washington v. Harper. In Harper, the court determined that prison inmates could be forcibly medicated if they were a danger to themselves or others, and if the medication was medically appropriate. Riggins, in turn, decided that a defendant already on trial could be forcibly medicated to ensure his competency and allow for the proceedings to continue smoothly, in essence bulldozing one’s 14th amendment rights to “accomplish essential state policy” (Riggins, 1992, as cited in Breneman, 2004, p. 971). Riggins also proclaimed that forcible medication must be the least invasive means of treatment, and provide minimal side effects. Sell was clearly the child of these two rulings, fusing the competing interests of governmental prosecution with the liberty and safety of the defendant.
Nevertheless, the Sell criteria has numerous flaws.
I have recently examined my latest patient, on OCtober 23 at 10:45 A.M. The patient has been accused with the murder of the old man. The patient admits to what he has done but his beliefs make him think that he is completely sane and not mad. “The disease had sharpened my senses-not destroyed-not dulled them”(Poe 203).
sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. The case against him was largely
Sloss, David. "The Right to Choose How to Die: A Constitutional Analysis of State Laws Prohibiting Physician-Assisted Suicide." Stanford Law Review. 48.4 (1996): 937-973. Web. 2 March 2015.
Four doctors, three terminally ill patients, and a nonprofit organization called Compassion in Dying, came together to file a suit arguing that prohibiting PAS is against a person’s right to liberty (Illingworth & Parmet, 2006). This became known as the Washington et al. v. Glucksberg et al. case. This case went to the Supreme Court in January of 1997 and by that following June was ruled constitutional to uphold PAS as illegal (Washington et al. v. Glucksberg et al., 1997). The penalty for any assistance in a ...
In Douglas N. Husak’s A Moral Right to Use Drugs he attempts to look at drug use from an impartial standpoint in order to determine what is the best legal status for currently illegal drugs. Husak first describes the current legal situation concerning drugs in America, citing figures that show how drug crimes now make up a large percentage of crimes in our country. Husak explains the disruption which this causes within the judicial system and it is made clear that he is not content with the current way drugs are treated. The figures that Husak offers up, such as the fact that up to one third of all felony charges involve drugs, are startling, but more evidence is needed than the fact that a law is frequently broken to justify it’s repeal.
This case was very interesting and I am really glad I chose it for my paper. Its amazing to me how one man with the right connections and social standing can get away with so much for so long. Nobody ever suspected him because he was the father of the NASDAQ, he couldn’t scam people for billions of dollars. And not just any random people, Mad off targeted his own people, the Jews and groups affiliated with him. He was very picky and pretended like he didn’t want to let anyone in on what he was doing which in turn made more people want to get involved and give him even more money, that’s just human
With the help from F. Lee Bailey, who spent five years appealing the verdict; all the way to the Supreme Court, released Sheppard from prison granting retrial for inherently prejudicial publicity (Rompalske 20). Although Sheppard was found not guilty in 1966, his life had been des...
Because the Missouri Supreme Court ruled against the removal of Nancy Cruzan’s artificial hydration and nutrition on the grounds that “clear and convincing” evidence of Nancy’s wishes was not provided, the Cruzan family appealed the decision to the United States Supreme Court arguing that Nancy was being deprived of her right to refuse medical treatment. The Supreme Court ruling affirmed that competent patients have the right to refuse unwanted medical treatment, but also noted that incompetent patients are not capable of exercising this right. Consequently, states may establish their own safe-guards to govern cases in which a substituted decision maker wishes to refuse treatment for an incompetent patient. This ruling therefore upheld the decision of Missouri’s Supreme Court.
In conclusion, Ralph Tortorici’s trial was unfair. Through his history of anger and solitary that later lead to a severe illness, the lack of proper trial due to the reason that the prosecution should not have gone forward after there was clear evidence of Ralph’s unstable mental health and the lack of support for his paranoia schizophrenia are all factors that demonstrate why Ralph was given an unjust trial.
Debated as one of the most misrepresented cases in American legal history, Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald still fights for innocence. Contrary to infallible evidence, prosecution intentionally withheld crucial information aiding MacDonald’s alibi. Such ratification included proof of an outside attack that would have played a major role in Jeffrey’s case.
Much of my skepticism over the insanity defense is how this act of crime has been shifted from a medical condition to coming under legal governance. The word "insane" is now a legal term. A nuerological illness described by doctors and psychiatrists to a jury may explain a person's reason and behavior. It however seldom excuses it. The most widely known rule in...
Gray, Judge James P. Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About
... fair to say that Williamson’s conviction and death sentence resulted from a combination of mental illness, junk science, political pressure, unscrupulous police work, and incompetent counsel.” (Coyne)
McLellan, F. (2006). Mental health and justice: the case of Andrea Yates. The Lancet, 1951-1954.
Fifty years ago, a person breaking the law would either be called crazy or a criminal. Today, the mental health community has much more specific diagnoses. However, the explanation of certain behaviors may be difficult because there is much overlap among mental conditions. In Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, the protagonist, Patrick Bateman, is apparently simply a psychopath. However, Bateman can be diagnosed with other mental illnesses such as Asperger’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, narcissism, and antisocial personality disorder. In both the book and film adaptation, Bateman’s actions can be understood more accurately when analyzed in light of modern psychology.