Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The puzzling rise of defendants too sick to stand trial in WA
Seattle Times ^ | 7/7/23 | Esmy Jimenez

Posted on 07/08/2023 6:17:31 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal

A strange puzzle piece sits between the worlds of mental health care and the criminal legal system.

For the last decade, nearly every county in Washington has sent a rapidly growing number of people in jail to undergo a competency evaluation — that is, there’s a question as to whether that person can legally stand trial, often due to mental illness, substance use or an intellectual or developmental disability.

Those evaluations are necessary to move a criminal case forward. People deemed incompetent are given treatment, though it’s limited — usually medication and basic legal education to help them understand the court proceedings. If their condition improves, their cases proceed.

(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: crime; lawlessness; prosecution; wa
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-25 next last

1 posted on 07/08/2023 6:17:31 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Roman_War_Criminal

Nothing puzzling about it.

These are craven, evil people (perpetrators) who understand the weakness of people who are principled and moral enough to take into account (via legal mechanisms) the possibility that someone may actually be unaccountable for their actions due to REAL mental illness, and they take full advantage of that protective consideration knowing full well that there is an equally craven and evil body of people in the judicial system who WANT them to escape culpability for their illegal actions.

Basically, pathologically evil criminals who engage equally pathological people in the judiciary who have the same goal of releasing instead of punishing them, and then threading them deliberately through that formerly humane loophole.


2 posted on 07/08/2023 6:28:44 AM PDT by rlmorel ("If you think tough men are dangerous, just wait until you see what weak men are capable of." JBP)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Roman_War_Criminal
They are probably told to fake illness to avoid a trial.
Not puzzling at all.

3 posted on 07/08/2023 6:29:48 AM PDT by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Roman_War_Criminal

Sort of a indictment of the US justice system as it is composed today, in the past they have been running cases on people incapable of providing themselves a useful legal case. Spent great sums of money with a legal class that is much more expensive than a mental health class. You cannot convict a potato of crime, but there are potato people in prison that should be in a mental hospital instead of living on the street.

I am conservative and support just and kind mental institutions for the .5% of the population that needs aextrema amounts of care. Saving jail time for the people who understand they are being punished for their real action ups effectiveness of law enforcement. If 1/1000 of the attention was paid to mental health facilities as we spend in crime and punishment cycle of courts jails, the problem for society would be much smaller, just the criminally sane, and the psychopaths would be the public menace.


4 posted on 07/08/2023 6:39:36 AM PDT by protoconservative (Been Conservative Before You Were Born )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Roman_War_Criminal
The heavy use of potent and dangerous illegal drugs is increasingly common and takes a toll, especially when there is a pre-existing mental disorder or susceptibility. This trend of mentally ill defendants especially reflects the wide use of marijuana, which has a well-documented tendency to cause or aggravate schizophrenia in susceptible individuals.
5 posted on 07/08/2023 6:45:35 AM PDT by Rockingham
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Roman_War_Criminal

In 1963 JFK signed the bill to empty the Mental Hospitals, it took time and lawsuits to get it done, but the effect has been terrible for the victims and for the nation’s quality of life, but extraordinarily effective for the left.


6 posted on 07/08/2023 6:52:00 AM PDT by ansel12 (NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Roman_War_Criminal

It is often based upon, “gaming the system” by the defendants and the mental health “experts.”


7 posted on 07/08/2023 6:53:04 AM PDT by thegagline (Sic semper tyrannis! Goldwater in 2024 )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BitWielder1
They are probably told to fake illness to avoid a trial.

this.

8 posted on 07/08/2023 6:55:16 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Roman_War_Criminal
A competent defendant could just fail the competency exam.


9 posted on 07/08/2023 7:02:02 AM PDT by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rockingham

The heavy use of potent and dangerous illegal drugs is increasingly common and takes a toll, especially when there is a pre-existing mental disorder or susceptibility. This trend of mentally ill defendants especially reflects the wide use of marijuana, which has a well-documented tendency to cause or aggravate schizophrenia in susceptible individuals.


This and kudos for saying it.


10 posted on 07/08/2023 7:18:44 AM PDT by volunbeer (We are living 2nd Thessalonians)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Roman_War_Criminal

When these phonyass bass turds are determined too crazy to stand trial, they should be “red-flagged” immediately and denied the right to purchase a gun until they are once again deemed competent enough to stand trial.


11 posted on 07/08/2023 7:45:01 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (A man in NM is killed over a movie theater seat. The azhos in The Swamp think guns are the problem. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

“In 1963 JFK signed the bill to empty the Mental Hospitals, it took time and lawsuits to get it done, but the effect has been terrible for the victims and for the nation’s quality of life, but extraordinarily effective for the left.”

Not too hard to figure which countries still lock up their crazies...those are the ones with safe cities.


12 posted on 07/08/2023 7:46:38 AM PDT by BobL (Trump has all the right Enemies; DeSantis has all the wrong Friends)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Roman_War_Criminal
Scumbag criminals and scumbag lawyers gaming the system.
13 posted on 07/08/2023 7:48:14 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Two Words: BANANA REPUBLIC!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: volunbeer; Rockingham

Totally agree with this!

Drugs are a satanic influence on people.


14 posted on 07/08/2023 7:48:31 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal (Jesus + Something = Nothing ; Jesus + Nothing = Everything )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: rlmorel

If there was any justice in America the authorities should have to keep them in jail for their protection.


15 posted on 07/08/2023 7:52:46 AM PDT by AlligatorEyes (Iactura paucourm serva multos)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Roman_War_Criminal
Drugs are a satanic influence on people.

Why do you think the Government is pushing the use of drugs[ "Medical" marijuana, etal]And attacking the use of tobacco? The Government wants drugged up robots that can't think for themselves and will do as they are told without asking questions. Ant the sheep eat it up. The Government knows what they are doing, even if the peasants don't. Just for kicks go look up the noses of Congressional Aides and staffers in Washington, D.C.

16 posted on 07/08/2023 8:02:28 AM PDT by sport
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: sport

Then once the Revolution is complete, they’ll impose the Death Penalty for having drugs.


17 posted on 07/08/2023 8:09:03 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Roman_War_Criminal
I would think that any person who is incompetent to stand trial is also incompetent to do anything else, and should be placed in an institution to avoid harm to that person and everybody else.

If you can't stand trial, are you released into the general population? Seems like a mistake.

18 posted on 07/08/2023 8:28:43 AM PDT by Bernard (“the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God." JFK 1-20-61)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Roman_War_Criminal

Well, now: Scanning comments, it’s clear that I’ve read the article and that most others have not.

Glaringly omitted from the article is any data whatsoever on the charges against said individuals aside from casual mention of ‘misdemeanors’.

Some here have astutely identified key aspects of the problem, and here we watch our governments continue to play ‘whack-a-mole’ while once again failing to identify key - rather obvious - inconvenient causes...which are also conveniently omitted from the article:

This is overwhelmingly a blue city problem, stemming from policy decisions by federal demoncrats.


19 posted on 07/08/2023 8:36:29 AM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BitWielder1

Exactly. Lawyers always try to get their clients on a “treatment track” as standard procedure, and judges order health/mental health evaluations as a form of defensive medicine and CYA at public expense.

The other reality is that a large percentage of criminals either started out with mental problems or brought them on through heavy drug use. Why this is somehow redeeming is beyond me.


20 posted on 07/08/2023 8:39:27 AM PDT by Chewbarkah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-25 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson