Court Opinion

ID: 9509557
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 21:47:12.76496+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:07:50.374549
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE NELSON
specially concurs.
I concur in the Court’s opinion. The examination — evaluation statutes (Title 46, Ch. 14, part 2, MCA) clearly do not provide authority for the involuntary medication or treatment of a pretrial detainee for purposes of rendering him mentally or emotionally fit to proceed to trial or to assist in his own defense.
While we clearly state that we are, here, addressing only that issue, nevertheless, speaking for myself, and out of concern that our opinion has been drafted with greater care than that with which it might be read, I emphasize that, absent some future statutory change *239or a decision of this Court addressing the precise issue, I do not interpret our opinion in the instant cases as precluding the State from involuntarily medicating or treating a seriously mentally ill detainee under the provisions and procedures prescribed by § 53-21-129, MCA. Under our statutory scheme, that latter treatment is, however, only for the purpose of dealing with the immediate, emergency situation; it is not for the purpose of rendering the detainee fit to proceed to trial or to assist in his own defense.
In neither of the instant cases, is there anything in the record that implicates involuntary medication or treatment under the emergency situation required by § 53-21-129, MCA.