Competency To Stand Trial

On the night of February 4th, police responded to a call at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson. They had been piece of cake and killed the only other person in the home was the Wilsons 25 year old son Edward. Subsequently Edward was arrested and charged with two counts of offshoot tip murder. Edward was found to be inadequate to stick up streak now that he has come to the facility where I work for restoration of cleverness I am responsible for providing a re-evaluation of strength.Knowing Edwards past noetic exposes and suicide attempt a few years back on that point are many things that I would postulate to take note of out front and during the evaluation process. First I would want to obtain information from Edwards previous doctors, specifically the one who first had diagnosed Edward and prescribed him his medicine eventide interrogate the doctor if possible. To aid in the behavioral research I would want to inter weigh Edwards school t each(prenominal)ers to have rec ord of win and behavior in school.Also, I would want to review school transcripts to influence if on that point was any deterioration of grades and/or behavior. I would want to audience family members and friends to determine any previous rage or anger issues Edward had antecedently displayed, besides the one(s) already noted. Competency to house trial, is a legal build that usually refers to a criminal Defendants world power to go in in legal proceeding related to an alleged offense (Mossman, Noffsinger, Ash, Frierson, Gerbasi, Hackett, Lewis, Pinals, Scott, Sieg, Barry, Wall, Zonana, 2007) or.Can be defined as having the capacity mentally to learn and be informed of what was happening as far as the court proceedings the defendant was involved in, as well as cosmos able to give out and read information between attorneys. In order to be considered competent to stand trial there are numerous questions that the defendant would need to be able to answer and/or comprehend. Some examples of these questions would be, does the defendant understand what he or she is being charged with, and does he or she understand why?Does the defendant understand the various verdicts from the outcome of the trial, and the possible consequences of each verdict (Forensic Checklist)? There are many instruments to assist with the evaluation valuatement, such(prenominal) as the Competency assessment instrument (CAI). In order to assess Edward and his competency to stand trial I would ask him whether or not he was able to communicate relative information to the attorney around the night in question, I would assess his decision making ability when it related to the crimes Edward was charged with.I would ask Edward if he understood the roles of the defense counsel, the judge, the prosecuting officer and other players in the trial process. I would assess Edwards view of the crime and the way others would perceived him if found guilty, whether or not commonwealth would be i n fear of Edward beca pulmonary tuberculosis of the nature of the crime. I would the ask Edward to make out what happened on the night in question, who was there and the timeline of events of that night I would estimate if he understood why the police had arrested him and what led up to the arrest.(Whitlock, Feix, Banner, Gerdes, Santina, Trageser, 2012)Besides the interview questions I would assess and evaluate Edwards demeanor and the way he upheld his appearance. I would evaluate the hand gestures, if any, facial expressions, how in-depth he thought intimately the answers to the questions I asked, and his overall actions on the outside, or physically. You fag tell a lot about a person with the way they carry themselves, their hygienics for instance can tell you if the person is incapable of caring for himself or maybe they have poor hygiene practices.After assessing Edwards competency take aim his awareness and his ability to comprehend reality, I do not imply that Edward i s competent to stand trial. Given his diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and his unfitness to control the symptoms without medication, along with his past incidents involving anger, rage and violence I do not think Edward would react in an appropriate manner if he was provoked or just had a violent outburst. Considering the charges of first degree murder I believe for the safety of him and others he should be deemed cumbersome to stand trial.Because Edward has been found to be incompetent to stand trial, the court proceedings will be put on hold tour her continues to ask for treatment until his competency has been restored (Frontline, 2013). I believe with continued treatment including medication taken consistently and counseling and observation Edwardss competency to stand trial will be restored in a few to a greater extent months. If I had to choose the theory of criminal behavior that would best conceptualize Edwards behavior I would choose biological, and mental. Biologica l, because his condition that he was diagnosed with is a disorder of the brain, which is biological?Something in his brain has distorted reality and has do him paranoid, hear see and think things that were abnormal and delusional. These symptoms can be controlled with the use of medication when they are take, and again these points to a biological behavior. I chose psychological because in order for somebody to commit murder there mustiness be something wrong in the way they think. This could be attributed to the biological issue of having a disorder of the brain but I smell if that is the trip then biological and psychological situationors would go hand in hand.Regardless, either way there is an illness in Edwardss brain that can be associated with biological factors which would in turn lead to the psychological factors and behaviors. If I was on the stand and the judge asked me to assess Edwards risk of future violence, I would tell him Edward is probably unstable. Taking in to consideration his past violent outbursts, the fact that he is on medication that controls symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia and the nature of the crime he is being charged with I would inform the judge there is a strong possibility that Edward could have more violent episodes in the future.I would not be able to say for certain but give the facts I would lean very strongly in the direction of him being a threat to himself and others. For those who have been deemed imp competent to stand trial and are put into inpatient treatment, form surplusty groups. These specialty groups while in treatment watch video tapes and are given special instructions on how the court processed works. (Greene, 2012) This is the specialty groups I feel Edward would need to fit into for treatment and counseling and would suffice restore competency.I am hoping that within a couple months of treatment Edward would be able to stand trial and be fairly tried for the crime committed. After assessing Edwar d and revaluating his competency I have found that even though he has mental issues and is on medication for his diagnosed issue, restoration of his competency to stand trial is a possibility. There is no fear of malingering in Edwards case, although if there were an issue with a fear of malingering there are tools to help decipher whether or not an individual is trying to fake an incompetency when it comes it to standing trial.