There are times in this country when the system’s failures are so egregious, so infuriating, that outrage isn’t just warranted; it’s the only sane response. The latest chapter in the Laken Riley case is exactly that kind of moment. Here we have a young woman, a promising nursing student, brutally murdered while jogging on her university campus. Her killer, Jose Ibarra — an illegal immigrant and known gang member — was convicted and sentenced to life without parole. Justice, it seemed, had finally been served.
Not so fast. In a move that defies common sense and spits in the face of the victim’s family, the very judge who handed down the sentence has now granted Ibarra a mental evaluation at taxpayer expense. Why? Because his appellate attorneys have suddenly decided to run with the argument that Ibarra was mentally unfit to stand trial or even to understand the proceedings against him.
Ibarra entered the country illegally during a period of record border crossings, detained and then released in Texas. He popped up in New York City, where he was arrested for endangering a child, and was eventually flown to Georgia — again, on the taxpayers’ dime. All the while, he was exactly the kind of individual our broken immigration enforcement is supposed to keep out: a gang member, a repeat offender, and, ultimately, a murderer.
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And now, after all the horror Ibarra has inflicted, we’re supposed to take a step back and question whether he was competent to stand trial?
Never mind that his original defense team didn’t see fit to raise this issue.
Never mind that the prosecution saw no evidence of incompetence during the trial.
Now, well after the fact, we’re supposed to entertain the notion that this cold-blooded killer was somehow incapable of defending himself?
“The mental competence of [Ibarra] has been called into question, and this court has found it appropriate for an evaluation to be conducted at the public expense,” Judge Patrick Haggard wrote in his order.
This is the kind of legal garbage that erodes every last shred of confidence in our justice system. It’s not about justice anymore — it’s about exploiting every loophole, every technicality, to give a violent criminal yet another shot at freedom or, at the very least, to drag out the process and inflict more pain on the victim’s loved ones.
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The judge’s decision to order a mental evaluation is a slap in the face to every law-abiding citizen who expects the courts to stand for something more than endless delays and second chances for the worst among us so that lawyers can make more money.
Laken Riley’s family deserves closure, not another round of legal theater and a possible retrial. The citizens who pay for this circus deserve a system that works for them, not against them. And every American should be outraged that, once again, the rights of a violent criminal are being placed above the rights of his victim. This isn’t justice. It’s a travesty, and it’s long past time for the people in charge to remember whose side they’re supposed to be on.
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