Posted on 08/18/2016 2:16:06 PM PDT by nickcarraway
On Wednesday, a judge refused to accept a guilty plea from a man accused of beheading a co-worker in 2014.
Judge Lori Walkley listened to testimony all day last Friday, as psychologists on both sides argued over Alton Nolen's mental competency.
Wednesday, Walkley announced her decision not to accept Nolen's guilty plea.
She worried accepting it would not survive an appeal.
"I've given it a great deal of thought and a great deal of prayer," Walkley told the courtroom Wednesday. "Because, I thought I could use divine intervention."
She said she did not want the victims and their families to go through multiple trials.
Walkley wants Nolen to undergo a competency exam at a state facility in Vinita so the case can move forward, promising things will proceed as quickly as possible.
"They're entitled to justice," Walkley said of the victims and their families. "While it may not be swift, it will be sure."
Prosecutors said they were disappointed in the judge's decision, noting she initially ruled Nolen was competent to stand trial.
"She had a gut feeling that he was competent, but basically she wanted to make sure and resolve all doubts," said Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn. "She's going to make sure she has another set of eyes look at it and take that in consideration."
Nolen is charged with murder and five other felony counts, after allegedly killing Colleen Hufford in September 2014.
Police said Nolen returned to Vaughan Food Services shortly after he was fired and attacked with a butcher’s knife.
Nolen wanted to plead guilty in Cleveland County Court in February, but the judge pushed things off until May 20 to make sure he fully understood the consequences of his plea.
Walkley pushed things off again until last Friday, when psychologists and lawyers argued Nolen's mental state.
Nolen has refused to cooperate with his attorneys, who said he has lumped them into a sort of legal conspiracy with the judge.
The defense tried to frame its client as mentally incompetent, while prosecutors called Nolen difficult to deal with but competent.
"We firmly believe he's been competent all along," he said. "I see no reason why, if he comes back competent, which I assume that he will, that the judge would accept his guilty plea, and we could go on with the sentencing."
Garvin Isaacs, a defense attorney and president of the Oklahoma Bar Association, believes the judge made the correct decision.
"She did the right thing, and that's what a judge is supposed to do," he said. "Under our law, everyone is entitled to a fair and impartial judicial system, a fair and impartial judge and a fair and impartial jury. And, that's what Judge Walkley is doing, and we need to admire her for upholding her oath of office."
Isaacs said it is "really unusual" for a judge to reject a guilty plea but, in this case, a re-examination is worth it.
"If the judge thinks there needs to be an evaluation, justice requires it be done," he said. "In our country, people who are mentally incompetent who do not understand right from wrong are not criminally culpable. We need to lock them up in a mental hospital to protect the public."
There is no timetable for Nolen's next competency evaluation.
Once a doctor makes a ruling, Walkley could accept Nolen's plea, proceed to a trial or send Nolen to stay in a state medical facility.
Shoot the SOB and get it over.
If prayer brought her to this....to which deity was she praying?
Here’s more, earlier info on the jihadi killer - https://pamelageller.com/2014/09/oklahoma-jihadist-who-beheaded-colleen-hufford-was-not-fired-the-islamic-ritual-slaughter-was-premeditated.html/
Proof our judicial system is nuts. You can’t even plead guilty!!
Does she want to keep having this Islamic murderer psychologically evaluated until he is diagnosed the way she wants him to be diagnosed? This is justice?
“Under our law, everyone is entitled to a fair and impartial judicial system,”
I wonder if this person would consider that in the case of the Clintons.
If there's a problem with competency, it needs to be addressed now. Otherwise it can be raised in an out of time appeal and again on habeas, and the case will be bogged down in the court system for decades.
Nail it down now, and the whole process will be finished much sooner.
In twenty years he’ll get his voting rights back.
Had this been a non-sharia killing....judge would have taken it. Sharia law is alive and growing here.
Nothing in the article indicates that this man was a radical Islamist who was acting out his jihadi motive.
I agree with you.
Any failure to consider ‘competency’ would tie up the conviction in knots.
Do the discovery now and the inevitable appeals will have less traction.
No way should this Jihadi be let off on the “Islam is a mental disease” defense.
Anti-Sharia Law says he needs to be offed immediately.
It does no one any good to have a defendant plead guilty and have an appellate court reverse because the defendant was not proven to be competent to enter that plea. The judge is actually helping the prosecution in the long run: there will be an evaluation; the defendant will be found competent; he will plead guilty; and there will be no possible issue on appeal.
A bullet is a lot cheaper than the mental evaluation, the trial and the confinement for life. to coin a phrase......,”Shoot the SOB and get it over.”..
He needs to be fed bacon for breakfast and ham sandwiches for all other meals.
“I’ve given it a great deal of thought and a great deal of prayer,” Walkley told the courtroom Wednesday. “Because, I thought I could use divine intervention.”
Whatever. Be a damned judge, the law is pretty clear. You really need divine intervention? Please...
Ok. The question is...how many psychological evaluations need to be performed before one is ruled competent to stand trial?
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