Opinion ID: 2062379
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Government's Interest in Bringing Khiem to Trial.

Text: Having assessed Khiem's liberty interest, we turn now to the competing interest asserted by the United States. As Justice Brennan wrote in his concurring opinion in Illinois v. Allen, 397 U.S. 337, 347, 90 S.Ct. 1057, 1063, 25 L.Ed.2d 353 (1970), [t]he safeguards that the Constitution accords to criminal defendants presuppose that government has a sovereign prerogative to put on trial those accused in good faith of violating valid laws. Constitutional power to bring an accused to trial is fundamental to a scheme of `ordered liberty' and prerequisite to social justice and peace.[ [9] ] Accord, Riggins, supra, ___ U.S. at ___, 112 S.Ct. at 1815, quoting Allen in the context of an involuntary medication issue raised in a murder case; State v. Law, 270 S.C. 664, 674, 244 S.E.2d 302, 307 (1978) (same). [T]he community's interest in fairly and accurately determining guilt or innocence ... is of course of great importance. Winston, supra, 470 U.S. at 762, 105 S.Ct. at 1617-18. Since it has been impossible for several years to bring Khiem to trial to determine his guilt or innocence without first administering psychotropic medication, the government's interest is a fundamental one and of a very high order indeed. In Winston, the Court treated as important (though not as controlling) the government's interest in obtaining a bullet from a criminal suspect's chest. That bullet would, however, have represented but one part of the evidence against the defendant. Id., 470 U.S. at 765, 105 S.Ct. at 1619. [10] In the present case, it appears to be beyond dispute that if Khiem is not treated with psychotropic medication, the prosecution will not be able to bring him to trial at all. The societal interest at issue is therefore considerably greater than that presented by the government in the bullet recovery cases. As the Supreme Court noted in Riggins, supra, ___ U.S. at ___, 112 S.Ct. at 1815, after quoting the Allen concurrence to emphasize that the government's opportunity to bring an accused to trial is fundamental to a scheme of ordered liberty, the State might have been able to justify medically appropriate, involuntary treatment with the drug by establishing that it could not obtain an adjudication of Riggins' guilt or innocence by using less intrusive means. The ACLU argues in its amicus brief that the government's interest is largely symbolic, because even if Khiem is convicted, he will in all likelihood return in short order to some form of institutional psychiatric care. We cannot agree with the ACLU's characterization. We note that Khiem has asked the court to terminate his commitment and that he emphatically denies that he is a danger to himself or to anyone else. An individual may not be civilly committed unless it is demonstrated that he is likely to injure himself or others. See D.C.Code § 21-521 (1989); In re Melton, 597 A.2d 892, 896-97 (D.C.1991) (en banc). Accordingly, if all of the declarations on Khiem's behalf were taken at face value, and if his legal contentions were to prevail, he might soon be a free man without his guilt or innocence of two murders having first been established, and this could continue indefinitely unless he regained his competency to stand trial. Unless we view the trial of homicide cases, the deterrence and punishment of crime, and the incapacitation of criminals as insignificant, the government's law enforcement interest in determining whether Khiem murdered his parents is far more than merely symbolic.