The PEOPLE v. Thompson

Defendant, Jerry Thompson, was convicted in a i960 Cook County bench trial of murdering his half-brother and was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. He asserts that error occurring both in his pretrial competency hearing and in his subsequent trial have deprived him of due process of law.

At the second competency hearing (an initial hearing terminated in a mistrial when the jury was unable to agree on a verdict) the assistant State’s Attorney in his closing argument told the jury, in effect, that the burden of showing defendant’s incompetence rested with the defense. The court in substance…