This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Late Tuesday, the Utah Supreme Court halted the impending forced medication of Elizabeth Smart kidnapping suspect Wanda Eileen Barzee.
The justices said they wanted time to review an emergency petition filed by Barzee's attorneys seeking to delay forced medication pending a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Officials at the Utah State Hospital said Tuesday morning they were implementing a Friday order from a 3rd District Court judge to treat Barzee with anti-psychotic drugs.
But attorneys for Barzee told the high court no medications would be given to Barzee until Tuesday night.
The high court issued the stay with the understanding it would head off rather than interrupt Barzee's treatment, said appellate court administrator Matty Branch.
Hospital doctors have said that it would not be in Barzee's best interest to start medications and then stop them soon after.
In their petition to the Utah Supreme Court, defense attorneys Scott C. Williams and David Finlayson noted it has taken years to reach this point in the case.
"It hardly seems important, much less critical, to now feverishly impose the impingement on constitutional rights where Ms. Barzee seeks a modest stay. . . ." they argued.
The Utah Supreme Court said in December that Barzee could be forcibly medicated - the first time a Utah appeals court examined the issue in light of a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
In 2004, 3rd District Judge Judith Atherton found Barzee mentally incompetent and sent her to the state hospital so doctors could try to make her well enough to stand trial.
But in 2006 hospital doctors testified that Barzee - who claims she is the "mother of Zion" and receives messages from God through her television - had refused all medications and was making no progress toward competency.
Wanda Barzee, 62, and her husband, Brian David Mitchell, 54, are accused of kidnapping then-14-year-old Elizabeth Smart on June 5, 2002, from her Federal Heights home. They were arrested in March 2003 while walking in Sandy with the girl.
A judge is considering whether forced medication is appropriate for Mitchell, a self-proclaimed prophet who apparently wanted to make Elizabeth a plural wife with Barzee.