Accused of killing his mother with two shotgun blasts as she sat on her sofa, Zachary Thomas Neiman says he wants his day in court. But he has refused to take medicine that prosecutors say would allow doctors to deem him mentally competent to stand trial.
"Mr. Neiman has drawn a line in the sand and said, `This is how much medicine I'm taking,'" Assistant State's Attorney Pamela Alban said yesterday at a court hearing. "A lot of it lies with Mr. Neiman."
Refusing treatment won't free the 26-year-old Pasadena man anytime soon, experts say. While a person charged with a crime can theoretically avoid trial - or prison - by being found mentally incompetent, that defendant will end up remaining in a state institution where psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, nurses and other experts will continually watch, test and re-evaluate him.
"People aren't getting away with anything. You can be confined in a psychiatric hospital forever. It can have no end," said Laura L. Cain, managing attorney for the adult mental health unit of the Maryland Disability Law Center.
Neiman has pleaded not criminally responsible to first-degree murder in the July 2006 slaying of his mother, Rae Bajus, and his attorneys intend to show he has a history of mental illness.
The case illustrates the difficulties of prosecuting criminal defendants who've been found unfit for trial or not criminally responsible at their trial: They can't be forced to take psychiatric medication unless a judge determines that they pose a danger to themselves or others.
In other words, the law allows a person to sacrifice his sanity to avoid the possibility of being sent to prison.
Under a Maryland law changed two years ago, a person found incompetent to stand trial on a first-degree murder charge can remain in a state mental hospital for a decade if he fails to become fit for trial - after which he can ask a judge to dismiss the charge.
But that same judge can convert his criminal commitment to a civil commitment by finding the person is still dangerous - not uncommon for a first-degree murder suspect, experts said.
Yesterday, Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Paul A. Hackner ruled that Neiman was not competent to stand trial, postponing any proceedings for at least six months. Though separate psychiatric reports reached conflicting conclusions, prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed with a June report from doctors at the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center that determined Neiman was unable to assist in his defense.
