Current:Home > Contact-usMentally ill man charged in Colorado Planned Parenthood shooting can be forcibly medicated-LoTradeCoin
Mentally ill man charged in Colorado Planned Parenthood shooting can be forcibly medicated
View Date:2024-12-24 00:21:36
DENVER (AP) — A mentally ill man charged with killing three people at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic in 2015 because it offered abortion services can be forcibly medicated, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruling upheld an order issued by a federal judge in 2022 allowing Robert Dear, 66, to be given medication for delusional disorder against his will to try to make him well enough to stand trial.
Dear’s federal public defenders challenged the involuntary medication order by U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn in part because it allows force to also be potentially used to get Dear to take medication or undergo monitoring for any potential side effects to his physical health.
Dear’s lawyers have argued that forcing Dear to be treated for delusional disorder could aggravate conditions including untreated high blood pressure and high cholesterol. However, in their appeal, they said that Blackburn’s decision to give prison doctors the right to force treatment or monitoring for other ailments is “miles away” from the limited uses for forced medication allowed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The defense questioned why Blackburn did not explain why he discounted the opinions of its experts who testified during a hearing on whether Dear should be forcibly medicated in 2022. But a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit said Blackburn sufficiently explained that he placed greater weight on the opinions of the government’s experts because of their experience with restoring defendants to competency and their personal experience working with Dear.
Dear has previously declared himself a “warrior for the babies” and also expressed pride in the “success” of his attack on the clinic during one of many outbursts at the beginning of that hearing.
After Dear’s prosecution bogged down in state court because he was repeatedly found to be mentally incomptent to stand trial, he was charged in federal court in 2019 under the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
Two of the people killed in the attack were accompanying friends to the clinic — Ke’Arre Stewart, 29, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and was a father of two, and Jennifer Markovsky, 36, a mother of two who grew up in Oahu, Hawaii. The third person killed was a campus police officer at a nearby college, Garrett Swasey, who responded to the clinic after hearing there was an active shooter.
veryGood! (84238)
Related
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Something Corporate
- Their lives were torn apart by war in Africa. A family hopes a new US program will help them reunite
- Holiday spending is up. Shoppers are confident, but not giddy
- American scientists explore Antarctica for oldest-ever ice to help understand climate change
- Why California takes weeks to count votes, while states like Florida are faster
- Spirit Airlines Accidentally Recreates Home Alone 2 After 6-Year-Old Boards Wrong Fight
- Biden administration allows ban on some Apple Watch imports to take hold
- Students at now-closed Connecticut nursing school sue state officials, say they’ve made things worse
- Mega Millions winning numbers for November 8 drawing: Jackpot rises to $361 million
- Teen's death in Wisconsin sawmill highlights 21st century problem across the U.S.
Ranking
- Study finds Wisconsin voters approved a record number of school referenda
- Burning Man survived a muddy quagmire. Will the experiment last 30 more years?
- Map shows where blue land crabs are moving, beyond native habitat in Florida, Texas
- Actor Lee Sun-kyun of Oscar-winning film 'Parasite' is found dead in Seoul
- Drone footage captures scope of damage, destruction from deadly Louisville explosion
- Fentanyl is finding its way into the hands of middle schoolers. Experts say Narcan in classrooms can help prevent deaths.
- Live updates | Israel’s forces raid a West Bank refugee camp as its military expands Gaza offensive
- The year in review: 50 wonderful things from 2023
Recommendation
-
Full House's John Stamos Shares Message to Costar Dave Coulier Amid Cancer Battle
-
Heat exhaustion killed Taylor Swift fan attending Rio concert, forensics report says
-
Turkey hits 70 sites linked to Kurdish groups in Syria and Iraq in retaliation for soldiers’ deaths
-
Their lives were torn apart by war in Africa. A family hopes a new US program will help them reunite
-
Quincy Jones laid to rest at private family funeral in Los Angeles
-
'Crown' star Dominic West explains his falling out with Prince Harry: 'I said too much'
-
Prosecutors oppose Sen. Bob Menendez’s effort to delay May bribery trial until July
-
As migration surges, immigration court case backlog swells to over 3 million