Courts: The Mental Patient's Rights

Determined to do something about his weakness for vodka that had earned him a record of minor brushes with the law, Army Veteran Carl Holm, 28, voluntarily went to a veterans mental hospital in Sheridan, Wyo. When he was given town privileges, though, Holm wasted no time getting drunk and passing out on the hospital lawn. "It's my opinion," said a harried doctor after locking up the patient, "that you're a hopeless alcoholic and should spend the rest of your life in this ward."

The hospital duly went to court to ask Holm's involuntary commitment under a Wyoming law that...

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