Criminal Procedure
Tables Turned: Defendant Demands Trial, Prosecutors Seek to Avoid It
Posted Jun 18, 2008, 10:46 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A defendant accused of being an agent for Saddam Hussein avoided a trial two years ago because of a ruling made by a judge who is now U.S. attorney general. Now the accused woman is demanding a trial while prosecutors argue she is unfit because of mental illness.
Michael Mukasey, in one of his final rulings as a federal judge, refused in 2006 to order the forced medication of the defendant, Susan Lindauer, to make her competent to stand trial, the New York Sun reports. The indictment was never withdrawn, however, and now Lindauer wants a trial. Prosecutors, on the other hand, told a federal judge yesterday that eight reviewing doctors had found the defendant suffers from a mental illness.
“The result is a strange case of role reversal between prosecutors and defense lawyers,” the story reports. U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska of Manhattan is weighing the arguments.
The story reports that Lindauer, a former journalist and congressional staffer, told reporters outside of court that she was "supervised by individuals tied to intelligence" and had been "left out to dry and scapegoated" by the United States.