MADISON - Forcing a mentally incompetent man to take psychotropic drugs without finding him a danger to himself or others violates his constitutional rights, an attorney for a former Buffalo County man told the state Supreme Court on Tuesday.

John A. Wood, 55, originally was at Mendota Mental Health Institution in Madison from 1978 to 1991 after being ruled not guilty due to mental disease of second-degree homicide in the death of his father-in-law near Alma in Buffalo County.

Wood, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, returned to the Madison institution in 1998 after being found not guilty by mental disease for second-degree sexual assault of a female patient while temporarily hospitalized in La Crosse County.

La Crosse County Circuit Judge Michael Mulroy in 2006 granted a petition by Mendota authorities to involuntarily give Wood the anti-psychotic drug risperidone. Wood appealed the order, and the state's high court took the case on the grounds that hundreds of others in state institutions are in similar situations.

Wood's attorney, Kristen Lehker, asked the court Tuesday to overturn a statute that allows the state to force medications on mentally incompetent individuals without finding them a danger to themselves or others and doesn't require an automatic independent review every six months.

"It's important to keep in mind that these are serious drugs - they can kill him, make him permanently disabled and still not cure schizophrenia," Lehker said.

Wood also isn't seeking release from Mendota, she said, so doesn't pose a danger to himself or others while in that institution.

While deciding whether to order administration of a drug, a court can consider the violent acts Wood committed, the court should factor in the crimes occurred 10 and 30 years ago, Lehker said.

Assistant Attorney General Duane Harlow said it's redundant to hold a hearing to find Wood a danger, as that can be inferred from his being a patient at the institution. Wood's seven unsuccessful petitions for conditional release from Mendota have given him ample opportunity to show he doesn't need psychotropic medications.

"Instead of a court determining whether he should be allowed to refuse administration of a drug, we should let the treating physicians at the institution decide that," Harlow said.

Forcible administration of the psychotropic drug is in Wood's best medical interests as well, Harlow said, as the lack of medication keeps him confined.

The court is expected to take several months before deciding if it should clarify the law.