Defense: Alleged Bragg shooter unfit for trial

[unhappycamper]

Defense: Alleged Bragg shooter unfit for trial
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Mar 4, 2009 19:12:48 EST

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Defense attorneys argued Wednesday that a former soldier accused of killing a paratrooper and wounding 18 others during a 1995 shooting rampage at Fort Bragg is incompetent to stand trial.

Attorneys for Sgt. William J. Kreutzer Jr. asked the court during a pre-trial hearing to find him unfit for trial. The military judge did not immediately rule on the issue.

A forensic psychologist for the defense team, Maj. Christopher L. Lange of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, testified that Kreutzer had a personality disorder that would affect his ability to testify. The defense argued that the disorder may make him appear without remorse.

“He’s not capable of showing he’s remorseful, even if he is,” Lange said, according to WRAL-TV.

But a forensic psychologist called by prosecutors, Col. Elspeth C. Ritchie of the Office of the Army Surgeon General, argued that Kreutzer was found competent to stand trial in December. She said Kreutzer’s mental condition has not rendered him out of touch with reality.


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/03/ap_kreutzer_bragg_030409/%2e