USA - The Pennsylvania Supreme Court today said the state may force 2 death row inmates to take anti-psychotic medication in order to render them mentally competent to proceed with their cases

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court today said the state may force 2 death row inmates to take anti-psychotic medication in order to render them mentally competent to proceed with their cases. The high court, by a 4-2 decision, overturned rulings by the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas in 2 similar cases. Thavirak Sam, a Cambodian immigrant, now 51, was convicted of killing his mother-in-law, brother-in-law and 2-year-old niece in 1989.  Herbert Watson was convicted of the 1982 shooting death of his estranged girlfriend. Both were sentenced to death but later found incompetent to participate in appeals filed on their behalf. "The jury's lawful verdict here was death," the majority opinion in Sam's case said. "... That judgment and sentence have not been executed, nor can they be executed so long as (a post-conviction appeal), which appellee never authorized, sits in stasis in perpetuity ... as a roadblock to the execution of a lawful judgment." In both cases, the court instructed lower courts "to order that appellee be administered, involuntarily if necessary, anti-psychotic medication to render him competent." If the treatment succeeds, courts must find out whether the inmate wants to proceed with appeals, and if so, whether he can help his attorney in doing so, the high court said.