Incompetence rulings and insanity pleas are undermining the purpose of the criminal justice system and putting people in danger.
The killing of Iryna Zarutska, allegedly by career criminal DeCarlos Brown Jr., in North Carolina, is bringing this topic back to the forefront. The hearing to determine whether Brown is eligible to receive the death penalty is on the verge of being delayed further, as Brown was found “incapable to proceed” in December 2025, and he has since been taken into federal custody.
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This is not a particular scandal, as Brown would have presumably remained in some sort of custody in North Carolina until he was declared competent for the trial to continue. But it raises several other issues. For one, this will almost certainly have an effect on whether or not Brown will be able to face the death penalty for his alleged crime, thanks to the standards set out by the Supreme Court, even if he is declared competent to stand trial.
Secondly, there is the fact that Brown has been found too incompetent to understand the gravity of his current legal situation, but was not too incompetent to single out the small, vulnerable woman he allegedly murdered and then attempt to flee the scene, including attempting to discard both the knife he allegedly used and the sweatshirt he was wearing.
But, most importantly, the fact that all of this ever happened is a damning indictment of the “incompetence” standard in the first place. Brown had a long history of criminal acts and a history of not showing up in court. Months before Brown allegedly murdered Zarutska, he was arrested again. His trial was delayed after his defense attorney requested a mental health evaluation to determine his competence, and the courts simply dismissed Brown to go receive an evaluation on his own time. He never did.
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If it were even a question that Brown, with his long history of violence and ignoring the law, was too incompetent to understand that he was committing crimes, he should have been locked away until his competence was confirmed. How is it that someone is too incompetent to understand that committing crimes is wrong and be held accountable for it, but not so incompetent that they can be released back into the general public, where they can further victimize innocent people?
Brown proved that he was incapable of functioning in society long before he allegedly murdered Zarutska. He should not have been free after his long criminal record, and he should not have been free while awaiting a mental evaluation for his prior crimes. If you are too “incompetent” to stand trial for crimes you commit, you are too incompetent to live anywhere outside of a padded room. That our criminal justice system does not ensure that is a failure. In North Carolina, that failure may have gotten Zarutska killed.