kissdegirl
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2010
- Messages
- 1,135
- Reaction score
- 10
Those are two very different issues - she has been found incompetent to stand trial - therefore she is unable to help her attorney properly represent her. There are two standards that are used across the US - Dusky standard and ...i am totally blanking on the other (will have to dust off my textbook!). Each state decides which standard they will employ.
What has happened is not an assessment of competency at the time of the crime. That is a whole other can of worms!
There doesn't have to be an established past in order to declare this, it is based on an psychologist's assessment of her mindset right now.
Also - it is actually very hard to feign incompetency! I finished my MA in Forensic Psychology last summer and we had lots of classes for forensic assessment. Many of the psychometric tools that are used in the court system have questions/entire sections that are included to catch feigning (faking psychological issues), and also forensic psychologists who complete these types of assessments are specifically trained to look for that kind of thing. One that can be used within the court system is the MMPI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Multiphasic_Personality_Inventory) - check out the section marked 'validity scales' I took an enitre class on the MMPI and one of our first assignments was to take the MMPI, however our professor gave us a 'personality or issue' that we had to answer the questions as if we had that personality or issue - it was very intersting to see that the validity scales catch people very easily!
You put so eloquently into words what I was thinking, thank you! I have been thinking that this time in jail, being treated or not for her mental issues, has not been good for her mental state. That she has deteriorated sitting in there. Being isolated in your cell for 23 hours a day would probably affect a mentally healthy person's mind in a negative way. I have no doubt that she was in a different state of mind back in December. She may have been exhibiting signs of her mental illness, but I believe her illness is a dynamic state. It's not static...she's not in the same state of mind she was, but her mind has deteriorated during these past 5 months.
I pray for Gabriel and his family as always. This must be so difficult. I pray that obtaining treatment for her illness will lead us to the truth, or provide more insight into what happened in SA.
I was much too angry to post anything when I first read the news today. After a long workout at the gym, I've decided to keep looking on the bright side. To keep looking for that little light that Gabriel is shining for us. His mother needs help. She needs this kind of help specifically. As much as I want her charged, and to pay for her crimes against LM and Gabriel, I want her treated. To charge her and punish her will not bring answers, not when she is not competent enough in the eyes of the psychologists who evaluated her to understand anything that is happening right now.
Perhaps when she is returned to competency (and I have total faith she will be), the answers will come.