Man spends four decades in mental hospital for stealing $20 necklace

[Geee]

Washington Times:

Franklin H. Frye was charged with stealing a $20 necklace in 1970, and he has spent the better part of his life locked up ever since after being found not guilty by reason of insanity.

 

Mr. Frye was sent to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington in 1971, part of which houses the criminally insane — including would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley Jr.

 

In a chain of events that suggests a serious judicial breakdown, federal court records reviewed by The Washington Times show a public defender filed a motion for Mr. Frye’s unconditional release more than five years ago, citing his recovery.

 

But Mr. Frye never got his day in court.

 

The judge handling the case had died in 2007, shortly before Mr. Frye’s motion for release was filed. His case was not transferred to a living judge until recent weeks.

 

David Rudovsky, a civil rights lawyer and senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, said the case suggests a “breakdown in justice in the court system.”