The Nevada Supreme Court held a public hearing on Monday to examine Public Defender claims that the District Court's method of determining the mental competency of defendants is broken. At the center of their complaints is how Judge Jackie Glass handles the "competency court".The Review-Journal reports:
Attorneys with the county public defender's office accused Glass of not allowing them to challenge her rulings. They also accused her of failing to provide full reports on their clients to them and of not allowing defense attorneys to contact doctors, among other charges.
"We saw that our clients' constitutional rights were being violated in a variety of ways," said Christy Craig, chief deputy public defender.She painted a picture of a system in crisis, where defense attorneys don't know who the doctors are who evaluate their clients and are provided only short summaries of doctors' reports. She also said Glass doesn't allow defense attorneys to bring in doctors of their choosing to make a competency evaluation.
Judge Glass responded to PD concerns at the Supreme Court hearing by noting that before Nevada's competency court began, criminal defendants languished in jail for months waiting to get a mental health evaluation.
No comment on this one. The Review-Journal might have wanted to ask the PDs if these annoymous competency doctors have done a good job. How can I have a knee jerk reaction to stories like this without more facts?!?
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