Court Opinion

ID: 9489241
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:09:51.644445+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:24.593267
License: Public Domain

HEANEY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I believe the district court should be affirmed and that Willie Reynolds should be granted a new trial. More than four years have elapsed since Reynolds’ state court trial. As thoroughly discussed by the majority, Reynolds’ trial testimony and the expert opinion of Dr. Moneypenny should have created sufficient doubt in the trial judge’s mind as to Reynolds’ competency to stand trial. Thus, I fully agree with the majority’s conclusion that the trial court violated Reynolds’ right to due process by proceeding to trial without a competency determination.
I disagree, however, that the appropriate remedy for the state court’s error is a competency hearing four years post-trial. We cannot now put the genie back in the bottle and make a meaningful determination as to what Reynolds’ mental state was in 1992. Rather, as the district court held, the appropriate remedy in this case is to reverse Reynolds’ conviction and permit the state to retry him if it is determined that Reynolds is presently competent to stand trial.