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I’ll summarize all this as NC law is close to my home state’s competency laws. I’m a former prosecutor and public defender and bottom line the situation is this. If the defendant is determined to be incompetent, that is lacking the ability to understand and appreciate the nature of the charges and consequences thereof, or is sufficiently mentally ill so that he cannot assist his counsel in his defense, he cannot stand trial until he does. He will then undergo treatment to restore competency. If it’s determined he cannot obtain competence with treatment, he cannot ever stand trial and the charges are dismissed. If it’s determined by the court that the defendant poses a threat to himself or others, he cannot ever stand be civically committed until it is determined he is no longer a threat to himself or others. This cat, if determined unable to obtain competence may well one day be walking the streets again. There are 10s of thousands of these type folks in the US and they are in the streets of every city and town in America. Many are ticking time bombs and there is nothing we can do to stop them. It is a terrifying situation. I’ve seen it happen over and over again.

You’ve chosen a profession where it seems you have to fight with an officer corp above you of marshmallow people who get into positions above their competency level, create rules that violate every law of logic, put blinders on you to try to keep you from seeing reality, and force you to use weapons made of a clay that melts at room temperature, then leave you to explain to victims why people clearly guilty can return to do the same evil again and again. Your frustration must have been great. And your guts to keep doing it in the face of that frustration was even greater.

Thank you for choosing that profession and working for so long to protect our society.