NCJ Number
160302
Journal
Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Volume: 23 Issue: 2 Dated: (1995) Pages: 269-284
Date Published
1995
Length
16 pages
Annotation
In its 1982 ruling in State v. Perry, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that the State could not force condemned, mentally ill inmates to take medication to make them competent to be executed.
Abstract
This article summarizes the case, reviews the Court majority's conception of neuroleptic therapy and its role in Perry's psychiatric care, and discusses the impact of the decision on subsequent cases. The author suggests that the Court's ruling was based less on a logical understanding of antipsychotic medication than on the Court's desire to uphold the death penalty. Psychiatrists can learn from the majority's written opinions how certain characterizations of psychotic symptoms and neuroleptic therapy can lend themselves to distortion and misperception. 113 notes