Walter Olson confirms that, in 1995, a bill passed one chamber of the New Mexico legislature that required that psychologists or psychiatrists testifying in a defendant’s competency hearing were to dress up as wizards:
When a psychologist or psychiatrist testifies during a defendant’s competency hearing, the psychologist or psychiatrist shall wear a cone-shaped hat that is not less than two feet tall. The surface of the hat shall be imprinted with stars and lightning bolts. Additionally, a psychologist or psychiatrist shall be required to don a white beard that is not less than 18 inches in length, and shall punctuate crucial elements of his testimony by stabbing the air with a wand. Whenever a psychologist or psychiatrist provides expert testimony regarding a defendant’s competency, the bailiff shall contemporaneously dim the courtroom lights and administer two strikes to a Chinese gong…
The requirement should have been imposed on certain Mississippi pathologists.
This satirical provision reminds me of the moment in the early 1990s when a “victim’s rights” bill was being pushed through the Mississippi Senate that would grant victims the right to sit at counsel table in criminal trial. Hob Bryan annoyed proponents by moving that the provision be waived in murder cases.
We had a capital murder defendant who was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. He was given a competency hearing after he was put through Competency School at Whitfield. The psychologist opined the defendant was competent and stated that when the defendant was asked what does a jury do and he replied “yellow, green, red. blue”, the response indicated the defendant knew that a jury is made up of all sorts of people. The hearing was interrupted when the defendant whipped out his penis and started masturbating. (Yeah, you prosecutors are gonna say this was all planned but I am being straight up honest when I tell you he was a nutjob. He flat-timed a sentence in Iowa and spent his whole time there in the psych unit). Anyway, THAT psychologist could have used the wizard costume at least on that day. And whoever has a transcript of that hearing (I know it’s out there) needs to e-mail me a copy.
Jane, I’d love to see that, too. Could you post here if you get it?
Sure.
Does the term “nutjob” describe what he was or what he did?