Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Defendants mental incompetance ignored

I'd answered this question for a friend of yours earlier. So this is a repeat. Except I want to comment on one of your comments. The system isn't corrupt. There is a real problem out on the streets with drugs. Your son has now become part of that problem. He has been receiving money from SSI (a system he never paid into or paid very little into)from the same corrupt??? system. You just need to figure out how the system works, and make it work for you and your son. Just like you're doing now.

The below was written to your friend.

The State of California has mental hospitals. Some of these mental hospitals have forensic units. My wife worked in the forensic unit in the City of Norwalk at the Metropolitan State Hospital. These units prepare people like you described to get ready for their court appearances. They even have classes to teach them how to act after they get their medication(s) adjusted.

This is where he should have been sent. He was not sent there because his attorney didn't ask for it.

I had a friend that was a Marine Corps veteran and repaired electronics. He graduated from Harvard which he attended on a scholastic scholarship. He was bipolar. He violated a restraining order and was convicted of stalking his soon to be ex-wife. He wasn't stupid but had a treatable mental illness.

He was so spaced out during his first court appearances that he was sent to one of these units to get him ready for the trial or further court appearances. He had a treatable mental illness, and eventual did time in prison. But at least he knew what was going on.

At this point you need to contact the State's Appellate Panel (headquartered in San Diego), and make sure that: 1. they are doing an appeal, 2. they know about his mental condition, and one of the appeal issues that should be raised is incompetence of his counsel. I'll let you do the work of finding out how to reach The Appellate folks. Hint call your county's Public Defenders Office.

The problem is that this young man is building up a history, and suffers the chance of being sentenced under Three Strikes the next time he crosses the system. Also if he is still guffy when he gets out of prison they may send him to the same forensic unit to stay until he gets well.