Decarlos Brown Jr may be found incompetent to stand trial, resulting in a dismissal of state murder charges.
Brown, 35, was charged after CCTV footage captured him allegedly stabbing 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska to death on a Charlotte, North Carolina, light rail train in August.
The New York Post reports Brown had an evaluation in December at Central Regional Hospital in Butner, North Carolina, that concluded he was not competent to stand trial. His competency hearing in court was scheduled for April 30, but the defense requested a 180-day delay that was granted.
A judge must now decide whether to accept the hospital’s findings.
Under state law, if the judge agrees, his charges will be dismissed, the New York Post reported.
Fortunately for the American public, that isn’t the end of the criminal case.
If the judge issues a ruling without prejudice, state charges for murder can be refiled if Brown is later found to have regained competency.
Brown also faces federal charges of violence against a railroad carrier and mass transportation system causing death, which were filed in October. He is currently being held in federal custody in Chicago.
Despite a psychiatric evaluation being ordered in the federal case, one has not been conducted yet.
This is by no means Brown’s only instance of lawbreaking as he has a history including 14 prior arrests.
Newsweek reported in September he was a known schizophrenic to local authorities.
It’s tragic the system allowed Brown to even ride the bus that evening in August.
His long history of arrests and mental health issues should have seen him in an institution or a prison cell. As the New York Post reported, those arrests were for crimes like assault to felony robbery going back to 2007.
Asylums need to be commonplace again. Mental health practice veers towards outpatient care on the basis of granting agency in the name of decency and charity to the sick.
What about decency and charity to the general population? We are forced to live around these people and endure their psychotic tendencies.
There is no reason to live like this. The failures of the justice system are another issue entirely.
Mental health issues notwithstanding, someone with a criminal history spanning decades shouldn’t have free rein to terrorize society after repeatedly proving he can’t function in it.
This is the danger of rehabilitative justice taking priority over punitive justice.
When restoring the offending party’s wellbeing and status among a free society comes first, that society suffers.
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