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Sniper framed for 911 conspiracy knowledge he says { April 29 2006 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/28/AR2006042802008.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/28/AR2006042802008.html
Muhammad's Competency Challenged
By Ernesto Londoņo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 29, 2006; B05
Sniper John Allen Muhammad told a defense psychiatrist that he may have been framed by the FBI because he knew that former Attorney General John D. Ashcroft was involved in a "conspiracy" that led to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the psychiatrist wrote in a letter this week.
The letter, signed by Annapolis psychiatrist David A. Williamson, was inserted in Muhammad's file at the request of the public defenders who represented Muhammad until he fired them last month.
Muhammad, 45, who has been convicted and sentenced to death in Virginia, is being tried in Maryland for his alleged role in killing six people in Montgomery County during the sniper shootings that terrorized the Washington region in October 2002. The trial is to begin Monday.
The psychiatrist recommended a thorough mental health evaluation for Muhammad to determine whether he's competent to stand trial. The public defenders argued last month that he is not competent, but the judge determined that Muhammad understands the nature of the proceedings and is capable of conducting his own defense.
Williamson, who said he evaluated Muhammad for about 16 hours over a six-month period, wrote that he believes Muhammad suffers from manic depression and may not be competent to stand trial.
"He talks incessantly for hours often rambling over multiple unrelated subjects," Williamson wrote in the letter, dated April 28. "He described that he does not sleep at night and indeed presents disheveled, malnourished and gaunt."
Williamson wrote that Muhammad has "a series of strongly held beliefs that may be delusions," including the notion that Ashcroft "intervened personally in his case" because Ashcroft knew Muhammad was aware of the supposed role the former attorney general played in the attacks.
The judge has agreed to let Muhammad represent himself during his trial. Muhammad has said he has been charged with six homicides he did not commit, but he has been unwilling to shed light on his legal defense during conversations with two psychiatrists and during pretrial hearings.
"He is confident that he has a legal strategy that will prove him innocent but cannot articulate it," Williamson wrote. "So confident is he of a not guilty finding that he refused to plan for mitigation at sentencing."
Š 2006 The Washington Post Company
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