Note: IANAL
Besides an insanity plea which is unlikely in LM's case, as far as we know, there is also the issue of competency to stand trial. I assume that each state has their own laws regarding competency, but I thought I would bring up the competency laws in California, since we looked at them on WS for another case.
In January of 2024, a software engineer at Google, Liren Chen, age 27, brutally murdered his wife, Xuanyi Yu, age 27, also a computer engineer at Google in Santa Clara County, California. It has been almost one year, and still no plea has been entered by Liren Chen. His plea hearings in Santa Clara Criminal Court are set at regular intervals, but so far at each scheduled hearing no plea has been entered and now the next plea hearing is scheduled for January 2025. He was hospitalized for awhile, and maybe still is. There hasn't been much MSM reporting on this case for some time. It is assumed that his treatment is psychiatric in nature, but that has not been confirmed by the MSM or the courts or his attorney.
Below is some information on how California law deals with defendants who are not deemed legally competent to stand trial. I don't know how New York state deals with competency issues, but if LM's attorneys in the NY case try to go in this direction, then it might be some time before LM goes to trial or even enters a plea at a hearing.
According to California law, a defendant can be held in a state hospital for "competency restoration" for up to two years and not enter a plea during that time if unfit to stand trial and enter a plea.
If a defendant is found to be incompetent to stand trial, they are ordered to attend a competency restoration program.
In California, that means that if they are charged with a misdemeanor, they will receive treatment in a county jail in a specialized competency restoration unit. In misdemeanor cases, they can be held in a county jail for up to 1 year for competency restoration.
If they are charged with a felony, they will be sent to a state hospital for competency restoration. In felony cases, the defendant has up to 2 years to become competent.
Once they are found to be competent, they will be returned to the county jail and the criminal proceedings will move forward.
If they are still incompetent to stand trial after two years, it gets more complicated, but they could be acquitted and placed into a conservatorship by the state and/or released to the family as conservators to care for the individual.
The terms insanity and competency are two legal terms that come up often in the criminal justice system. There are several differences between them.
verdugopsych.com