10 Disturbing Details Surrounding Robert Lewis Dear Jr., The Planned Parenthood Shooter

6 /10 90-Day Interval Review

Judge Gilbert Anthony Martinez ruled in May 2016 that Robert Dear was incompetent to stand trial, citing delusional disorder of persecutory type as determined by experts.

His competency to stand trial has been reviewed regularly at 90-day intervals since the ruling.

He is confined at the Colorado Mental Health Institute to receive treatments and further evaluations. In every instance, the result has always been the same.

The delay in legal proceedings prompted U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn (retired since February 2021) to pursue a federal case as soon as possible due to the five-year statute of limitation on the federal charges.

5 /10 Current Condition

On December 9, 2019, Dear was officially charged with federal law violations, including (among 68 of them) three counts of use of a firearm during a crime resulting in death.

Similar to the state’s case. However, he had to be determined competent for trial before any of the legal proceedings can continue.

Federal prosecutors argued that the previous state-mandated mental health evaluation should not apply to the federal case.

It was an outdated examination, meaning the result could not reflect the defendant’s current condition.

According to the court filing, prosecutors claimed the state’s mental health evaluation of Robert Dear was flawed.

4 /10 Maximum Penalty

If found competent and guilty of federal crimes, Dear faces a maximum sentence of the death penalty. The decision to seek the death penalty was not brought up at the time of the indictment.

Any legal issues about that potential decision must be made only after federal prosecutors go through a strict protocol, including consultation with the defendant’s counsel and victims’ families.

If the death penalty is out of the question, life imprisonment is the harshest form of punishment allowed.

His attorneys argued that another mental health evaluation for the federal case trial was unwarranted.

3 /10 Political Kangaroo Court

During the December 9 indictment, Dear told Magistrate Judge Nina Wang that the issue of mental competence was only raised in his case because it was all part of a political kangaroo court.

He further claimed that authorities did not want him to stand trial. Dear has repeatedly claimed to be competent for trial and asked to represent himself.

He made similar statements in the state case. Robert Dear doesn’t seem like a worried defendant for someone facing the death penalty or at least life imprisonment. He has insisted that he is not crazy.

2 /10 Regularly Found Incompetent

Judge Martinez’s May 16 ruling still stands, so Dear will remain in the same mental health facility and receive regular evaluation every 90-day. However, he is now in federal custody.

The issue of his incompetence from now on will be addressed by federal regulation.

According to forensic psychologist Max Watchel, the standard for mental competency in federal court are almost the same as in Colorado’s; there are very few (if any) differences between the two.

In practice, however, Watchel said that it is easier for a defendant to be declared incompetent for trial in state court.

1 /10 Uphill Climb

Max Watchel said that federal prosecutors are facing an uphill battle to find Robert Dear competent.

The issue of competency will be almost certainly raised by the defense, which now has in their pocket several years of mental health evaluation results that claim otherwise.

As of December 2020, the man who openly admitted to killing three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs and insisted on his competence to stand trial is not yet tried in state and federal courts.