Commonwealth v. Lombardi

We are required to consider the appropriate disposition of criminal cases where, due to amnesia, a defendant has no memory of events occurring at the time of the commission of the crimes charged.

The trial judge held a pretrial hearing on the defendant’s motions for a finding of incompetency and for dismissal of the indictments. He found that the defendant was suffering from permanent amnesia resulting from a serious beating he received shortly after the commission of the crimes with which he was charged. Because of this amnesia, the judge concluded that the defendant was in competent to stand…