NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — After a year of reporting, we wanted to show you what we discovered about mental competency and the court system.
We've covered so many cases now where mentally incompetent people come in and out of the court system — passing through a revolving door.
You can watch our special in the player above.
In this special, we hope you take away this issue is complex, but that degree of assessing these cases isn't going to keep us from reporting on it in the future.
In fact, Tennessee law changes on July 1 for those deemed incompetent by the court. Named after Jillian Ludwig, a Belmont freshman shot and killed, the law will not allow mentally incompetent suspects to enter back into the public domain.
Instead, it will mean those with that declaration will have to receive in or outpatient treatment, and they forfeit the right to own firearms.
As this law rolls out, we will be watching how this works and the impacts it will have on the justice system. That will mean more reporting, more watchdogging, more research.
This special isn't the end of the answer. It's just the start.
This special was created by Levi Ismail, Emily R. West, Jennifer Kraus, Ben Hall, Hunter Palmer, Jerry Walker, Kevin Sherrill and Bryan Staples.
