For this assignment, you will conduct Internet research on the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping trials. In brief, Smart was abducted at the age of fourteen from her home in Utah. Over nine months later, she was found with her kidnappers, Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Ileen Barzee (now deceased). During Mitchell's trial, consideration was given with respect to whether he was competent to stand trial. The legal standard for "competence to stand trial" has not changed since the US Supreme Court decision: "Our challenge is whether [the defendant] has sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding, and whether he has a rational as well as a factual understanding of the proceedings against him" (Stafford, 2003).
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