STORM2K

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 12:18 pm**

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

Elizabeth Smart kidnap suspect won't stand trial.

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 12:19 pm**

HUH? did he plea bargain? Or what is the scoop?

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 12:21 pm**

Whatsup with that ??????

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 12:21 pm**

Insanity?

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 12:23 pm**

Must have pleaded insanity or something.. I had trouble believing she was actually kidnapped. But.. thats interesting that the legal system says the woman is incompetent

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 12:54 pm**

bfez1 wrote:Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

Elizabeth Smart kidnap suspect won't stand trial.

Why not? Is he dead???

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 1:29 pm**

Wanda Barzee has been declared incompetent. But Brian Mitchell hasn't (yet). So he might still be faced with a court trial.

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 1:31 pm**

Can you imagine what those twisted minds did to that poor girl ?

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 1:35 pm**

So what do we have here? Another John Hinckley case? In a few years from now, will the declare these people "emotionally rehabilitated" and decide they are no longer a threat to society?

This whole picture stinks - they decide a woman in Texas who killed her children was competant to stand trial when there was evidence that she suffered severe postpartum depression and sentence her to life but allow these creeps to plead craziness so they won't have to stand trial. Something is wrong with our justice system.

What's next? Will decide that Saddam Hussain suffered delusions of grandeur and let him off too?

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 1:36 pm**

firefighter16 wrote:Can you imagine what those twisted minds did to that poor girl ?

I don't want to imagine that.....

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 1:37 pm**

He was probably found to be mentally incompetent to stand trial. He will never see one day behind bars. Sad, but true.

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 1:38 pm**

Lindaloo wrote:He was probably found to be mentally incompetent to stand trial. He will never see one day behind bars. Sad, but true.

Both of them wouldn't be held then in some mental institution? At the very least those wackos will be off the street.

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 1:41 pm**

Mental institution versus jail time in this case is different. He may be off the street but will never be held accountable for what he did. If he would have went to prison he would have suffered. Most if not all inmates do not like any type of crime committed against children, believe it or not.

He is merely going to get help. Not fair, considering the circumstances.

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 1:45 pm**

There is a chance, when someone goes to an assylum, of them getting out again.

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 1:45 pm**

Again, it's not him, it's her. His competency trial isn't scheduled until the end of the month.

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 1:47 pm**

Regardless, he wil probably be found mentally incompetent too. Same scenario, different day.

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 1:47 pm**

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... t_suspects

Elizabeth Smart Suspect Ruled Incompetent

By MARK THIESSEN, Associated Press Writer

SALT LAKE CITY - One of the two people charged with kidnapping young Elizabeth Smart from her bedroom is not competent to stand trial and will be committed to a state hospital, a judge ruled Friday.

Wanda Barzee's competency will be reviewed again at an April 15 hearing, Judge Judith Atherton said.

Barzee, 58, earlier this week waived her right to a hearing to contest the findings of two mental health experts who found her not competent to stand trial.

She did not speak at Friday's hearing but nodded twice after being asked if she made the statements included in her waiver request. She smiled while speaking with her attorneys after the ruling and did not speak to reporters.

In the waiver motion, Barzee had asked the court to rule "at its discretion" without an evidence hearing but added that she did not agree with the experts who found her incompetent.

"I do not believe myself to be mentally ill or infirm or incompetent in the eyes of the Lord," Barzee said in the court document.

She said the experts were unable to "understand the special nature of my relationship with God and my role as a minister and servant unto Him. ... Their inability to understand is also a result of their different belief system, and the influence of Satan's subtle powers on them."

Barzee and her husband, drifter and self-styled prophet Brian David Mitchell, 50, are charged with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated burglary in the June 5, 2002, abduction of Elizabeth, who was 14 at the time.

The couple allegedly kept Elizabeth as Mitchell's second wife for nine months in Utah and California. They were found March 12 about 15 miles south of Salt Lake City. Barzee and Mitchell also were charged in the attempted abduction of the girl's 18-year-old cousin, Jessica Wright — seven weeks after Elizabeth, now 16, was taken.

Mitchell's competency hearing was scheduled for Jan. 27-28. District Attorney David Yocom said that the two mental health evaluators assigned to Mitchell disagree on whether he is competent.

Also Friday, court spokeswoman Nancy Volmer announced that Mitchell's public defender, David Biggs, is leaving the Salt Lake City office. It wasn't immediately clear how Biggs' departure would affect the case. A call to his office Friday was not immediately returned.

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 1:47 pm**

True, Linda. He's definitely nuttier than she is.

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 1:59 pm**

WHOA, there...even Mitchell's public defender is bailing on him? Not good, folks. :eek:

Posted: **Fri Jan 09, 2004 2:01 pm**

Yep, pretty bad when an appointed Public Defender bails. Do you know what the public defenders office has to go through to get out of representing a case? Judges usually do not excuse them!!

STORM2K

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