State v. Jenkins

BRANCH, Chief Justice.

Defendant first assigns as error the trial court’s ruling that defendant had the mental capacity to stand trial.

The trial court conducted a pretrial hearing on defense counsel’s motion questioning defendant’s capacity to proceed to trial. At this hearing, Dr. John D. Patton, a psychiatrist, testified for the defense that he examined defendant for a total of three hours on several different occasions. He concluded that defendant was mildly mentally retarded with an I.Q. of less than 60 and a markedly impaired memory. The witness also testified that in his opinion…