Local Judge's View: Two questions asked regarding mental illness in criminal court

Local Judge's View: Two questions asked regarding mental illness in criminal court

Mental illness can enter a criminal case in more than one way. Sometimes it affects whether a person can understand what is happening in court. Sometimes it raises a question about what that person understood when the alleged crime occurred. Minnesota law treats those as different questions. The simplest distinction is this: Rule 20.01 and Minnesota’s competency statutes ask whether a defendant can fairly participate in the case today. The judge…