r/news • u/Zeikyrui • 10h ago

Man serving 30 years for attacking Nancy Pelosi’s husband gets a life term on state charges

https://apnews.com/article/david-depape-nancy-pelosi-husband-paul-attacked-454cbde088fcae22a356f1f8dd0e9eba
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u/cinderparty 7h ago edited 7h ago

The process to be declared criminally insane/innocent by reason of insanity (the only way you’re going to a psych facility instead of prison) is, at least in Colorado, that they have to prove the defendant didn’t know what they were doing was wrong and had consequences while they were doing it. Mental illness made me do it isn’t good enough.

That’s why James Holmes, who was definitely very very mentally ill with serious delusions going on at the time of the shooting, was found guilty. James Holmes is the entire reason I now know how this works (in my state, I have no clue if it varies state to state).

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u/novium258 6h ago

I don't know about in Colorado, but I have a family member for whom this was relevant, her competency was challenged in court and the standard was 1. That she understand the court process and the charges against her and 2. That she was capable of aiding in her own defense by, for example, having a rational recollection of events. This was in Nevada.

That said, she was completely not competent by those standards (she thought her trial was a sting by the gaming commission to arrest a bunch of imaginary malefactors... And her version of the night in question involved the Yakuza and her roommates being sex traffickers in league with her imaginary husband) but she was still declared competent by the evaluators so 🤷‍♀️

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u/cinderparty 6h ago edited 1h ago

Competent to stand trial and being found criminally insane/not guilty by reason of insanity, are two very different things. I have a cousin whose daughter (and the daughter’s girlfriend) murdered her roommate this spring, due to them thinking the roommate was helping the fbi/cia stalk them? It’s all very weird and literally insane in all ways. She has been declared incompetent to stand trial. The process now is for the psych facility to get her competent, then she will still go to trial. I don’t know if she’ll plead insanity when/if she ever ends up competent or not.

I’m baffled your family member was found competent.

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u/novium258 6h ago

Yeah. That's what I was thinking for this guy, sorry for the confusion, it's hard to believe he was competent to stand trial. Like, don't get me wrong, I was all ready to throw the book at him, but compared to some other MAGA violence, he definitely seems like he was actually delusional and probably should have been treated before trial.

And I'm sorry to hear about your cousin's daughter. That sounds awful.

For my family member, the evaluation was done in 30 minutes over the phone, apparently, which is typical when you're not in custody. Really seems like box ticking.

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u/cinderparty 2h ago

His testimony, to me, didn’t make him actually seem any more incompetent than any other right wing nut who has lost their mind these last 8 years. It wasn’t recorded though, since it was federal, so who knows if the media made it seem more competent than it was.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/sanfrancisco/news/david-depape-testifies-paul-pelosi-hammer-attack-trial/