Ake v. Oklahoma, 470 U.S. 68 (1985), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment required the state to provide a psychiatric evaluation to be used on behalf of an indigent criminal defendant if he needed it.

At his arraignment, his bizarre behavior prompted the judge to order a psychiatric competency evaluation.

Ake's attorney requested that the court appoint a psychiatrist to perform an evaluation specifically for the purpose of helping to adequately prepare and present an insanity defense.

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Marshall, framed the question as one of "[m]eaningful access to justice", weighing the individual interest in the accuracy of a criminal proceeding against the burden imposed on the state, in light of "the probable value of the psychiatric assistance sought, and the risk of error in the proceeding if such assistance is not offered".

[3] His accomplice, Steven Keith Hatch (October 9, 1953 - August 9, 1996) was executed in 1996 for the slayings even though he had waited in a car outside the family's home.