Dr. Smith is officially nuts. A court ruled he was unfit to stand trial after spending some time at the state funny farm. The Greenwood Commonwealth reported:
Dr. Arnold Smith is back at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield, where doctors will continue to monitor his mental condition after a judge ruled him unfit to stand trial for his alleged involvement in a murder-for-hire plot.
In issuing the ruling Tuesday, specially appointed Circuit Court Judge Breland Hilburn was following the recommendations of psychiatrists at Whitfield who determined that Smith lacks the ability to understand the seriousness of the charges against him and to aid in his own defense.
“The State Hospital is to examine the defendant and provide a report whether the defendant has regained competency every four months,” Hilburn said at the hearing.
The judge’s decision indefinitely puts on hold the prosecution of the 71-year-old oncologist for allegedly plotting to have Greenwood attorney Lee Abraham assassinated.
Speaking to Hugo Rodriguez, a defense attorney for Smith, Hilburn also said there was disagreement among the examining doctors about whether Smith might regain competency.
Dr. Reb McMichael, director of forensic services at Whitfield, expressed doubts in his report that Smith would ever regain the ability to stand trial.
Two other medical witnesses, Dr. Gilbert S. Macvaugh III, a Greenville-based psychologist hired by the defense, and Dr. John Montgomery, a forensic psychiatrist at Whitfield, both indicated the possibility exists that Smith would regain competency.
Smith sat quietly at the defense table for most of the hearing, occasionally whispering to one of his attorneys. He’d trimmed his beard into a goatee. He wore a navy blue hooded sweatshirt and khaki scrubs.
Rodriguez, a Miami-based criminal defense attorney, said Tuesday’s ruling was a positive development in the case.
Smith has been undergoing a psychological evaluation at Whitfield since June 4, after Macvaugh found the physician suffering from a severe mental illness.
Smith is charged with two counts of conspiring to kill Abraham, toward whom the physicians has had a longstanding animosity. Smith was arrested on April 29, 2012, the day after gunfire at Abraham’s Market Street law office left one alleged hitman, Keaira Byrd, dead and another, Derrick Lacy, critically wounded by agents of the state Attorney General’s Office. Abraham was uninjured.
Assistant District Attorney Timothy Jones said he wasn’t disappointed in Tuesday’s ruling.
“The experts have gone through months of evaluations,” Jones said. “Right now it’s in the hands of the psychiatric and psychological experts to make that determination.”
Not discussed at Tuesday’s hearing was whether the court can order Smith to undergo treatment while at Whitfield. Attorneys for Smith indicated that they would oppose mandatory treatment, such as forced medication.
Rodriguez said the defense also has doubts about whether Whitfield is prepared to provide adequate medical care for Smith.
“We have some grave concerns about his present medical condition,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t know if Whitfield is in a position to have him fully medically evaluated. He has a prior stroke.”
According to Jones, those issues won’t be addressed for at least eight months. Jones said Hilburn wanted two cycles of reports from Whitfield — completed every four months — before readdressing the matter.
“I’m sure during those eight months, (doctors) should be able to give a better answer about whether he might be restorable (to competency) or about possible treatments,” Jones said.
Should the case come to trial, Smith’s defense attorneys have already indicated that they intend to plead innocent by reason of insanity.
In offering an insanity defense, Smith’s attorneys would argue that his mental state was so impaired at the time of the alleged April 2012 plot that he didn’t “know the nature and quality of his acts” and the “difference between right and wrong in relation to the alleged acts at that time.”
The competency ruling also has significant implications for the civil case Abraham filed against Smith. In the lawsuit, Abraham said he’d had to alter his daily actions and lost enjoyment of his normal life as a result of the alleged plot. He is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages as well as court expenses.
On Tuesday, Hilburn said that attorneys for Abraham may go forward with written requests for files and admissions but may not depose witnesses or direct questions toward Smith.
“I’m just concerned about somehow compromising the defendant’s right not to be compelled to be a witness against himself,” Hilburn said....Rest of article. Subscription required.
If you have any doubts about Dr. Smith's sanity, just watch this video.
13 comments:
The bigger question is whether he is transparent.
With apologies to patients at the State Hospital and their families for Kingfish's obvious utter rudeness and remarks regarding the mentally disabled. Insensitive is too kind. What's the word I'm looking for?
^^^^^^
Liberal
It's jackassery for a known crazy lunatic who wanted someone dead. It's not about the truly mentally ill getting treatment.
Move on.
There is no reference to Smith's lead defense attorney William Bell in this posted portion of the news article.Has Judge Hilburn "sanctioned" Bell? Still, we don't know who put the bullet through Byrd's brain, nor do we know the identity of those responsible for torching Lee Abraham's law offices. The plot thickens.
"we don't know who put the bullet through Byrd's brain,"
doesn't matter, does it? the felon who started the criminal episode is responsible for everything that happens as a right, isn't he? - making this a suicide.
the arson may fall under the say category if it was all one event.
doesn't matter, does it? the felon(sic) who started the criminal episode is responsible for everything that happens as a right, isn't he? - making this a suicide.
Made up your mind even before a trial begins? I'm sure that Judge Hilburn would welcome your presence in his courtroom.
If there ever were a Crown of Thorns awarded for judicial misconduct in the State of Mississippi, the "judicial performance" of Judge Breland Hilburn during the Byron Beckwith trial deliberations would make the judge a prime candidate for such an award. Excluding exculpatory testimony is his forte.
To the Author: You have NO IDEA what the demographics are for those who receive competency evaluations throughout the state? If you knew what you were talking about you'd know that your article makes you look quite foolish. Go back to chasing big pay days through litigation. It is clear that neither criminal law nor mental illness are your strong suit.
"The bigger question is whether he(sic) is transparent."
Did you mean Judge Hilburn?
If Judge Hilburn had not won his fight in the courts toexclude cameras from the courtroom at the Beckwith trial--denying any chance of transparency--his prejudicial "bent of mind" would have been evident for all to see.
Judge William Coleman's "bent of mind" was evident for all to see at the recent televised city election trial held in Hattiesburg. Coleman's polling of individual jurors as to how they voted in secrecy, in the sanctity of the jury room, was a tactical move to force one juror to change her vote in fear of her life.
Enoch Sanders was right about Judge Coleman.
Is there a lawyer in the house?
If Dr.Smith ever comes out from the imposed indefinite detention, and goes to trial, can Judge Hilburn still twist the original intent of the current law on electronic media in the courtroom to deny the public a chance to witness his courtroom decorum in action? If televised, I suspect Judge Hilburn's courtroom decorum would look somewhat like that of Judge Jackie Glass' in the Las Vegas courtroom during the Juice's "kidnapping" trial.
It's time to call in Shawn "The King of Recusal" O'Hara in this case of "ex parte" communication by Judge Hilburn. Petitioner has experience in the case against Judge Gardner.
Recusal Has Become the Black Hole of Judicial Ethics.
Richie Schwartz also brought THIS case up on the JT Show (without Dave) Monday. In usual Richie fashion, he asked himself questions outloud and claimed he was aware but knew nothing and invited people to call him at nine and all eights.
Who is Ritchie Schwartz?
I see that there is a Mantee, Mississippi address for one of these talk radio stations. That area spawned a lot of radio startups back in the 1920s and on. It has a rich history of radio broadcasting in Mississippi due in part to the radio pionering families like Bob McRaney,Sr. and son, Birney Imes, Jr., the Hedermans, Fred Beard, Robin Mathis, Joe Phillips..etal.
If Bob McRaney, Jr. is still around, I have a collection of photos that I purchased at an estate/antique auction in Columbus, which included some of the photos that are included in his father's bookA History of Radio In Mississippi. I also have the 6'x6' aluminum-framed, glass display case of celebrity photos--that includes a photo of Sophie Tucker, the Last of the Red Hot Mamas. The display case was removed from his father's WROB radio station in West Point. However, the bulk of all the heirloom photos and celebrity autographs went to a buyer in Starkville. I can provide his name. I will donate what I have, if Mr.McRaney is interested.
I never could understand why these heirloom items were "dumped" at an auction.
Post a Comment