United States v. Berry

Berry, charged with Conveying False Information Regarding Explosives, 18 U.S.C. 1038(a), allegedly placed a briefcase made to look like a bomb but containing only papers and no explosives, outside a bank. Berry suffers from mental illness. He apparently believes that he is the trustee of a trust which owns all of Bank of America’s assets and that it is his duty to execute the trust and repossess those assets. According to the government, the briefcase incident was not Berry’s first encounter with the bank. Berry is not competent to stand trial absent medication but he does not wish to be medicated. The district court ordered him to be treated with antipsychotic drugs. The Sixth Circuit vacated that order. Even assuming the five-year statutory maximum sentence for the charged crime makes it a serious offense that could qualify for Berry to be forcibly medicated, there are significant mitigating factors that weigh against finding that the government has a sufficient interest for such mandated treatment. Berry has already been confined for the length of time he likely would face as imprisonment if convicted, and his pretrial confinement would likely be credited against his jail term. View "United States v. Berry" on Justia Law