A tragic crime, the murderer is caught but there is a problem.
The murderer has no language.
The Washington Post has the story. (use bug-me-not for a username and password)
The Unspeakable
The girl, raped and strangled, had been dead for nearly 48 hours when two police officers and a dog handler burst into Y-B's tavern, led by a drooling bloodhound named Patton, the big dog sniffing frantically.
Not to go into the details of the story but they do find who did it but there is a problem. The criminal in question is from El Salvador and has been deaf from birth. He was never educated and can only scrawl his name and speak a few words. He is not only illiterate, he is without language. Herein lies the problem -- back to the WaPo article:
"I've never had a case like it," said Edward W. Webb, sitting with Martinez's file in Virginia's Office of the Capital Defender in Norfolk. Webb said he doesn't know what his client did or didn't do along Pocahontas Trail that night seven months ago. He and Martinez, of course, aren't able to discuss it.
Which is the problem.
An accused criminal who can't assist in his own defense -- who can't communicate in any meaningful way with his attorney -- is legally incompetent to stand trial. The U.S. Supreme Court says so. A vast majority of such cases involve mentally ill defendants, but that's not the issue for Martinez. His claim is "linguistic incompetence."
And some more:
In Virginia, a capital defendant -- one facing lethal injection or life in prison without parole if convicted -- can be institutionalized indefinitely if found incompetent while treatment specialists work to "restore competence."
For Martinez, that would mean absorbing the first formal education of his life.
He would have to learn words -- what they are, what they signify -- and become proficient enough at sign language to work with his lawyer. The process could take years and could prove fruitless, depending on his aptitude and willingness to learn, experts said. His incentive: Eventually he could leave a hospital for jail, stand trial for murder and possibly be executed.
"The success rate for this type of thing evidently is not terribly high," Webb said.
The crime is tragic and the guy seems to be completely guilty but still, a fascinating legal question.
