United States v. Aaron Gomes

JACOBS, Circuit Judge:

Aaron Gomes has been declared mentally incompetent to stand trial, but examining doctors at a government medical facility have determined that competency could be achieved by treatment with anti-psychotic drugs. After Gomes’s repeated refusal to undergo the prescribed course of treatment, the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Dro-ney, J.) granted a motion to authorize the Bureau of Prisons to medicate him involuntarily.

In Sell v. United States, 539 U.S. 166, 123 S.Ct. 2174, 156 L.Ed.2d 197 (2003), the Supreme Court held that the Government may…