General Hospital Discussion Group

Topic: What is with the competency hearing?

I know it's only a soap, but it's hard for me to watch Anthony Z’s competency hearing and not stop and yell, "Excuse me?"   Maybe it's just me, but Ric’s position makes no sense.  Is he claiming that Zacchara committed several felonies at the B&W Ball, but that he should be excused from answering for the crimes due to mental illness (schizophrenia)?  And that he now is recovered and should therefore be set free?

What a stretch! I don’t know what goes on in Port Charles, but as far as I know, if you are in a facility for the criminally insane and you eventually become competent to stand trial, then that is the point where you do go on to stand trial.  And then a jury, in determining guilt or innocence, decides whether or not you knew right from wrong or had the capacity to form the mental state necessary for the crimes. 

So, on what planet would Zacchara go free because he was cured?

Remember the fake bomber got off scott free too. 

They should have a welcome sign coming into town, "Port Charles...Sanctuary  City to illegal immigrants, mad bombers, the criminally insane, plus the Mob!"

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Actually, he didn't. They said that he would be on probation for yrs & that he had some community service. But because of the circumstances surrounding the events & the fact that his wife died, leaving him as a single parent, a deal was struck. While his 'punishment' was light, to say the least, it wasn't getting off 'scott free'. eom

If he's walking around town instead of behind bars it's wrong. The momentary lapse of judgement because he was going through financial hardship doesn't cut it with me. But thanks for filling things in for me.

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Posted by: Luke's Fan
Date posted: Thu May 1 18:58:42 2008
Message:

If a person is determined to be 'criminally insane' and therefore incompetant to stand trial then, ok fine, send him to a mental facility.  But.......if the day comes when he is determined to be 'cured'....then he STANDS TRIAL....period, imo.  Fine if he's cured, but he STILL has to pay the penalty for his actions.  The victim has a RIGHT to this because, many times, they paid the price for the criminal's actions with their LIFE.  This is called justice.  It's not about...ok this person is cured and no longer a threat to society.  BIG DEAL if they no longer pose a danger?  They still have to pay for their original crime....and if that is LIFE IN PRISON, then so-be-it.  They shouldn't just get to walk free, Sheesh.

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This is exactly what I am trying to say./countess2

Oh yeah, I realized that Countess. Sorry if I sounded like I was arguing with you, lol. 100% agreement.

Actually, the opposite is true. Either you are competent at the time of your crimes and able to appreicate right from wrong or you are not. You can be incompetent to stand trial and aid in your defense at the time of trial but still competent when you committed them. Here, he was incompetent when he committed them (per the soap) so he is either locked up for treatement or free to go once he's competent. We cannot have it any other way.

Well tell that to the families of the VICTIMS. That theory offers NO JUSTICE for them at all. That's like saying....as long as a person is sane and safe NOW, it doesn't matter what they did before, BULLSH*T! The insanity plea is a way OVER-USED excuse so that the murderous trash of the earth can escape TRUE punishment for their heinous crimes. The legal system as is.....is too full of bleeding hearts to be effective. The trouble is that the bleeding hearts are too busy feeling for the perpetrators of crimes but seem to not care at all about the victims of crime.....till it affects them or theirs....then it's another story.

San Jose, you brought up an interesting point about the bleeding heart justice system. The way I see it, the legal system has become 'devoid of caring', where the victim's rights are concerned. The insanity plea is definately overused. For example, you have a animalistic killer and all the psychiatrists look at it like 'we got a real, live specimen here to study. Imagine what we could learn from this!!!' They look at it as some kind of science project but, how often do they take into consideration the massive destruction done by these people and the heartbreak that they caused other innocent people? Do they even care? Who knows. The victims are the ones who should be 1st priority, not the criminal....and not the doctor's 'need to study'

Well, that's because today's system has become too clinical, imo. I suppose in past times, the law could have been accused of rushing to judgement or being barbaric, perhaps. But the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction and now we are bending over BACKWARDS to *understand* the criminal mind. In the midst of all this, victim's rights have been put on the back-burner or, at times, even forgotten. Personally, I'm not so interested in understanding or diagnosing the criminal mind. The lions-share of attention should be on the victim....afterall....they didn't HURT ANYONE.

While the 'insanity defense' is often used, it very often doesn't work! Many (if not most) juries don't buy it & it is pretty tough to convince judges that a defendant IS legally insane. A lot of times the defense strategy backfires. It isn't just about the insanity defense, IMO. It is about how all convicted criminals are treated. We have a case locally where a rapist was released early, to a homeless situation. His parole officer put an ankle bracelet on him, releasing him to live under an overpass within blocks of his rape victim--without notifying her! The guy cut off the ankle bracelet & has now disappeared! The corrections dept. 'appologized' to the rape survivor for not informing her of his release, but their system is new. Not good enough of an excuse, IMO. I guess our system doesn't remember the convicted rapist several yrs ago, who was put into a work release program, walked away & ultimately returned to the scene of his crime to murder his rape victim, a neighbor who testified against him in court & the daughter of his rape victim--who had been an infant at the time of the rape. eom

Sorry, per the legal system: You must first be judged competent to stand trial. This has to do with aiding in your own defense--not whether you knew right from worng. Then, if you finally get adjuducated 'competent,' the JURY or JUDGE are the ones to condier the insanity defense, not the doctors determining if you're competent to stand trial. You must stand trial, if competent. You don't get sent home. That is civil commitment./countess2

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Posted by: Rosebud1
Date posted: Thu May 1 17:02:53 2008
Message:
Actually, it isn't that much of a stretch.  People who have been found guilty of a crime because of mental defect/disease HAVE been released, when they have 'recovered' through a rigerous medication schedule.  The problem is, once these people get out, they often have difficulty maintaining that med schedule & sink back into their disease again.

A family friend was murdered by one of these individuals, who should never have been released from a mental hospital!  Unfortunately, he committed a horrific murder when he was off his medication & a community clinic wasn't equipped to deal w/his refusal to take his meds, which led to the situation where my family friend was killed in her bed as she slept.

While her family felt the guy should have gotten the death penalty, I didn't.  He was a victim of the system & wouldn't have been in the situation to commit the murder without that system.  He DID get put into a mental health part of the state prison system & will never get out.  THAT is where Anthony also belongs.  In the RL situation, the killer has been in the mental hospital side of the prison system for almost 20 yrs & will probably remain there for the rest of his life.

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