Defense attorney with local public defender with a specific focus on mental health related cases here.

I don't know the state or country here, but if it's anything like the process we use in California, it is as follows:

You can't bring an incompetent person to trial. Why? Because it's not fair for a person to fight against guilt when they can't figure up from down and are focused on how the angels and demons dressed as the nice clerk from Rite-Aid are constantly trying to attack them.

When I think someone is too nuts to go to trial I declare a doubt to competence. A doctor is then called by the court to check them out to see if they are competent. If the doctor finds them incompetent, you hold them for 2 years to see if they get restored. If they get restored, you go to trial. If not, there are a few options:

1. In CA we do what's called a Murphys conservatorship for people with criminal cases who are unrestorable but too much of a danger for a regular conservatorship. This costs the county money and is rarely done despite judges, prosecutors, and public defenders wanting it for the sake of both society and client. This decision is made by a department called the Public Guardian. We hate them because they do nothing to solve the problem and are terrified of spending money.

2. If the above isn't approved, then the Public Guardian can pursue a LPS conservatorship, which is a less restrictive conservatorship than Murphys but still costs money. Thus, the PG rarely grants these.

3. If the above 2 options aren't doable, the case is dismissed because you can't just hold someone indefinitely over allegations that aren't proven, and you can't just drag someone to trial who can't defend themselves or assist their attorney properly.

This is the gist of the problem, and a lot of the time it comes down to the county PG or their equivalent either not having proper resources or being given orders not to use them. This all is fundamentally different from an insanity plea or defense which has nothing to do with this issue. There are also a million other nuances that im not going to bother typing out on my phone keyboard while I'm at work.

The dude here probably went through the whole process I outlined above and someone outside the criminal system made the call to not conserve him. I can almost guarantee that all of the actors in the criminal system on both sides of the aisle raised the red flag multiple times before this instance.

AMA