Kinkel lawyers seek new trial nine years later:
Trying to prove that no prison sentence is ever definite attorneys for parent killer and school shooter Kip Kinkel are trying to get him a new trial.
But his attorneys are still seeking to overturn Kinkel’s conviction and sentence. Their argument boils down to a relatively simple claim: Kinkel was mentally incapable of understanding his guilty plea.
Psychiatric experts hired by Kinkel’s legal team are scheduled to testify Tuesday that at the time of his plea in 1999, Kinkel’s mental health “had deteriorated so badly that he was seen curled up in a ball, hearing voices, and suffering from a panic attack,” according to court papers.
Given his condition, the U.S. Constitution requires that he get a new trial, Kinkel’s attorneys argue.
And he has an outstanding pillar of the community representing him…
Since then, Kinkel has obtained new lawyers, including Lawrence Matasar, a prominent Portland attorney whose clients range from former Portland Police Chief Derrick Foxworth to an Islamic charity worker accused of helping terrorists.
So let’s start with the revisionist history…
When state experts prepared to evaluate Kinkel in July 1999, his lawyers, as part of a “strategy to ensure that the state’s experts observed petitioner at the height of his mental illness,” ordered him to stop taking his medication, according to court papers. “As expected, petitioner’s mental illness worsened, his anxieties became more serious, and he began hearing the voices more frequently and more intensely.”
Days before his September trial was scheduled to begin, Kinkel started taking his anti-psychotic medications. But he received a low dosage, and it takes weeks for the medication to begin working, Matasar contends.
So when Kinkel considered his plea bargain, “he was in a psychotic state, mentally incompetent, unable to aid and assist in his own defense, and without the mental capacity to knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily waive any constitutional rights,” according to court papers.
The state’s attorney’s office disagrees…
“A criminal defendant’s counsel is in the best position to evaluate a client’s comprehension of the legal proceedings against him or her,” according to court papers. “Petitioner’s counsel spent numerous hours interacting with petitioner, consulted petitioner’s treating psychologist regarding his fitness to proceed and consulted with petitioner’s expert witness.”
So let’s sum up. He killed his parents then killed 2 and wounded 25 at his school. Batshit crazy or not I have no problem with him serving a 112-year sentence.
However, having said that I would love to hear from anyone who thinks that this assclown deserves a new trial and why. I’ll even allow the mutants to comment.
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