Treatment Law for Mentally Ill Upheld
The state’s highest court upheld the so-called Kendra’s Law, which allows caseworkers, family members and even roommates to seek a court order to force a mentally ill patient to comply with treatment.
The law, upheld 6-0 by the Court of Appeals in Albany, was named for Kendra Webdale, 32, who died in January 1999 after she was pushed in front of a New York City subway train by a schizophrenic who did not take his medicine.
Lawyers for another mental patient, identified only as K.L., argued the law, which took effect in 2000, is unconstitutional because it violated patients’ due process protections.
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