What better way to make your client look guilty than to question his competency to stand trial. I wouldn't have had an assessment done for him either if I were his lawyer. It has the effect of being prejudicial to the jury imo. MOoo.
Only thing I can think of is he wasn’t involved at all?? Because he’s facing DP for kidnapping and murder- not like he’d have anything to lose - but then we’d be back to a mysterious person or two getting in and out of the crime scene undetected- which is not impossible- and if BG not RA and witnesses saw different people- but that ground has been covered- only scenario I can think of if more than one person was involved is if RA was not involved- which is hypothetically possible but not the most probable scenario …. moo
Agreed. This is still BARD thus far, according to my very subjective opinion, but I get the ppl who are on the fence.
is he facing the death penalty? i thought it was 130 years max sentence.
No DP in this case
I wonder, if they recorded him in his cell with video and audio - will the jury see that? Hard to assess malingering or not without seeing it imo...
IMO, and any atteys pls correct me, but it is a great get out of the jail card for confessions if you can prove the client is incompetent at the time. See BM's efforts to get his client assessed as not competent in the Garcia case.
I disagree. It's a basic thing that a defendant must be able to understand what's going on and participate in their own defense. This safeguards against unfair convictions. It is part of defense's duty of care to raise competency if they feel it is an issue preventing them from collaborating with their client.
We have the sworn testimony of the prison guards who were tasked with monitoring him. They have zero reason to lie under oath, and zero reason to have fabricated those contemporaneous notes.
I haven't seen that in the cases i've seen that have had competency exams. The perception usually is that it is a means for someone to claim they're insane but they're not actually insane. Like Lori Daybell. or Letecia. Lori was incompetent but "restored to competency" so she could stand trial and aide in her defense.
BBMAdobe Acrobat
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Testimony from the 3 day hearing this summer. Just for a refresher.
Harshman was assigned to review his calls and monitor them and review confessions.
He said in early March Mr. Allen began reading his bible..
He spoke about finding Jesus Chris and finding God on March 21, 2023.. was talking a lot about making sure he could be with his family in heaven. He testified saying the confessions started just a few days later.. First ones to his wife and mother were met with shock.. wife often telling him to quit talking.. his mother telling him they are messing with his head.
I am curious about those first confessions. Seems they were way before April 5th. Seems things were actually going well in March if he was reading his bible and talking about finding God and watching to make sure he sees his family in Heaven and so on.
Also just because the discovery was delivered to the jail, does not mean RA had access to it or to all it. Wasn't there an issue with figuring out how he could view it because he couldn't have it in his cell? I also recall something about one of his attorneys didn't even bring it there, an aide did and then the prison didn't have a way to let him see it. I could be wrong on this so I'll go look for where I might have read this.. pretty sure it was here on WS.
Yeah, these aren’t inmate statements about what he said, which is always questionable because of their significant motivation.
Some mental illnesses affect competency differently than others. Him being competent doesn't necessarily mean he's faking.
