The Richmond Hill Insane Asylum in Grenada was bombed by military aircraft belonging to the United States in 1983. Petitioners, including Disabled Peoples’ International, presented the names of sixteen persons who were killed and six who were injured and claimed that the deaths and physical injuries of the mental patients were caused by purposeful armed …Read more

Eve was a mentally disabled young woman suffering from a condition that made it extremely difficult for her to communicate with others. She was not capable of understanding the consequential relationship between intercourse, pregnancy and birth.  Mrs. E, her mother, was concerned that Eve might innocently become pregnant, which would mean that she, an elderly …Read more

The Respondents, Cleburne Living Center (CLC) and others, brought suit against the City of Cleburne (the City) and a number of its officials, alleging that a zoning ordinance, and its application, violated the equal protection rights of CLC and its potential residents. CLC intended to lease a building for the operation of a group home …Read more

Respondent, Romeo, a severely mentally retarded adult male, was involuntarily committed to the Pennhurst State School and Hospital (Pennhurst), pursuant to the applicable involuntary commitment provision of the Pennsylvania Mental Health and Mental Retardation Act. While at Pennhurst, Respondent was injured on several occasions through his own violence and the reaction of other residents. He …Read more

The applicant, a United Kingdom national who had previously been diagnosed with having a paranoid psychosis, claimed that the United Kingdom unlawfully deprived him of his liberty when authorities forcibly recalled him to a hospital for the criminally insane in which he had completed a prior sentence for a violent crime. At the time of …Read more

Winterwerp brought an action against the Netherlands following his detention in a psychiatric hospital. Winterwerp was committed to a psychiatric hospital in accordance with the emergency procedure then in force under the Act on State Supervision of Mentally Ill Persons. Six weeks later, during Winterwerp’s emergency detention, his wife applied for his provisional detention at …Read more

Respondent, Donaldson, was civilly committed to confinement as a mental patient in the Florida State Hospital in 1957; he was kept in custody against his will for nearly 15 years. Petitioner, O’Connor, the hospital’s superintendent, had repeatedly refused Donaldson’s requests to be released. Donaldson’s requests for ground privileges, occupational training, and an opportunity to discuss …Read more

Plaintiffs, the guardians of patients confined at Bryce Hospital, Alabama (the Hospital) and certain employees of the Alabama Mental Health Board assigned to the Hospital, requested an order of reference for an authoritative determination of standards of the adequacy of the current and future mental treatment employed by the Hospital in effecting the right to …Read more

Petitioner Rouse brought this habeas corpus action alleging that he had been unlawfully committed to a hospital for the mentally ill because he had not voluntarily and knowingly introduced the insanity defense or authorized his attorney to do so during his trial on a misdemeanor charge of carrying a weapon without a license. When he …Read more

In 1962, Appellant Rouse was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital pursuant to D.C. Code § 24-301 after being found not guilty by reason of insanity of carrying a dangerous weapon, a misdemeanor for which the maximum imprisonment was one year. Rouse challenged his commitment on grounds of habeas corpus; he had been confined for …Read more