The background: In 2019, Joseph Underwood beat and strangled a woman in Laramie County, Wyoming, then transported her body to Park County, Wyoming, and dumped it in a creek bed. He was apprehended when he returned to the creek bed, but only after leading cops on a high speed chase. A judge ordered a psych evaluation, which concluded Underwood wasn’t mentally fit to stand trial due to a head injury. A separate evaluation by another doctor found him fit. After several evals by the first doc, the judge dismissed the murder case, saying Underwood would never be fit to stand trial.
Authorities in Park County, who had dismissed charges against Underwood to allow Laramie County to prosecute him for murder, have now filed charges for concealing a felony by transporting a dead human body, unlawful possession of a firearm as a felon, interference with a peace officer and fleeing or attempting to elude police officers. Underwood is currently serving time in Goshen County for felony forgery and other charges
Questions:
If the accused is found unfit to stand trial, why would the case be dismissed instead of proceedings to find him not guilty by reason of insanity or guilty but insane?
If charges are dismissed, can they be filed again later?
Are there different standards for “fit to stand trial” for murder than for other charges, such as those filed by Park County?
If one judge says he’s unfit to stand trial and likely will never be fit, why wouldn’t that preclude the possibility of trying him for other crimes in another court? And if it doesn’t, couldn’t that be proof he’s fit to stand trial for murder?
If charges are dismissed because the accused is unfit to stand trial, what happens? Can the accused be committed for life, or do they go back on the streets?
I’ll take this one. There are two separate issues relating to mental health in a criminal case: whether the defendant was mentally competent at the time the crime was committed, and whether the defendant is mentally competent at the time of trial.
If a person was insane when the crime happened (meaning they couldn’t appreciate right from wrong), then a trial can be conducted wherein they plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
But they can’t proceed to trial if the defendant is currently incompetent (meaning that they don’t understand that they are being accused of a crime or can’t assist their lawyers in their own defense), which can delay the trial to determine whether they are not guilty by reason of insanity.
If we’re dealing with the latter situation, the court’s concern is whether the person can be returned to competency so that they can stand trial (I.e. can we give them drugs to make them lucid?). If not, they will usually be kept in custody, but not given a trial, except they won’t be kept locked up for longer than they would have been punished if found guilty.
Here, of course, the punishment would mean the defendant doesn’t get released. But the judge probably thought, rather than keep checking to see if he’s competent, we’ll just release him to face these other charges. Although I should note that judges don’t actually get to dismiss the charges - the prosecutor decides whether to proceed with the case. So, it was the judge who had ruled he was not able to go to trial, but the prosecutor who dismissed it.
There aren’t different standard regarding competency for different crimes. What there may be are different procedures. For example , in my state, those charged with misdemeanors who are found the lack the capacity to stand trial have the charges dismissed, while those charged with felonies will be held in the custody of a forensic institution for some period of time in an effort to restore capacity so they can be tried at that time.
Thank you for the excellent, clear and very informative answer, @Moriarty. I really appreciate it.
I’m still kind of puzzled about him facing these other charges. If he’s not competent and so can’t stand trial for murder, how can he be competent to stand trial for all the other charges he faces in the other county? And if the judge is convinced Underwood isn’t able to stand trial, what good does it do to allow him to face other charges?
Right. But in this case, it was the felony murder charges that were dismissed. I can’t find the article right now, but an article I read after posting said the murder charges were dismissed with prejudice, so he can’t be tried for the murder again. Maybe the other county will send him back to Wyoming’s single psych hospital until he’s deemed competent to stand trial. There are no forensic institutions in the state. iI’ll look for the article.
What I was trying to say was that the standards don’t differ depending on the type of crime - but the procedures might. A felony case might be dismissed in my state under certain circumstances - or a person with a felony indictment can be confined until 2/3 of the maximum sentence for the top charge has elapsed or until they regain capacity and can be tried, whichever comes first. If the maximum sentence is 15 years, they can be confined for ten years - which is not coincidentally the amount of time someone sentenced to 15 years would have to serve with 1/3 off for “good time”
With misdemeanor cases, there is no confinement to see if they regain capacity - once they are found to be incapacitated, the charges are dismissed and the hospital has 3 days to evaluate the person. They are not held involuntarily unless they meet the same standard required for all involuntary admissions - which includes posing a substantial threat of harm to themself/others. Someone charged with petit larceny who is found to be incapacitated is not typically going to meet that standard - and if they don’t , the charges will be dismissed and they will be immediately released, with no possibility of confinement for 2/3 of the maximum sentence to see if they regain competence.
Thank you much. I’ve been out since I posted, and I realized, “Man, I didn’t thank doreen! I must’ve come off as kind of rude.” I came back here to tell you I’m grateful, and there was your nice, explanatory post. I really do appreciate it.