Archuleta v. Hedrick

Archuleta v. Hedrick
Court	United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
Full case name	Benjamin Archuleta v. Bill Hedrick, Warden; United States of America
Argued	November 18, 2003
Decided	April 23, 2004
Citation(s)	365 F.3d 644 (8th Cir. 2004)
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting	James B. Loken, Theodore McMillian, C. Arlen Beam
Case opinions
Majority	Loken, joined by McMillian, Beam
Laws applied
Eighth Amendment

Archuleta v. Hedrick, 365 F.3d 644 (8th Cir. 2004)^[1] was a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in October 2002, appealing the dismissal of a case brought by defendant Benjamin Archuleta. Archuleta had been found not guilty by reason of insanity of assault and subsequently ordered to be confined in a prison mental hospital by the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri after his successful insanity defense, as he was evaluated by a psychiatrist as dangerous. His appeal challenged this confinement and "forced treatment", requested a withdrawal of his original insanity defense, and sought his unconditional release from custody.^[2]

The appellate court reversed the lower court's dismissal of the habeas corpus petition, saying that habeas corpus is a last resort remedy available to those without any other, and the case was remanded back to that court with the instructions to transfer the petition to another district court, the United States District Court for the District of Utah.^[3]