A competency requirement, courtesy of the incompetent
Monday, June 30th, 2008
On June 19th, interim Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers praised the Supreme Court’s opinion in Indiana v. Edwards in a press release titled “U.S. Supreme Court Rules Mentally Incompetent Defendants Have No Right To Represent Themselves.”
Rogers’ tone is such that she believes denying constitutional rights to defendants is a good thing. The case establishes two different tiers of competency; a lower threshold that requires the defendant to be competent to stand trial, which generally means to be able to understand the charges against him and to assist his counsel, while the upper threshold requires a greater degree of competency, a level sufficient, in the eyes of the state, for the defendant to represent himself. (more…)
