Cases

The petitioner, Justin Sean Gum, appeals the Lewis County Circuit Court’s order finding sufficient evidence to support a conviction of second degree murder and sentencing the petitioner to forty years at the William Sharpe Hospital. The petitioner was first charged with first degree murder by the Magistrate Court of Lewis County and indicted by the Grand Jury of Lewis County for first degree murder. The case moved on for a hearing regarding the competency of the petitioner to stand trial. The circuit court judge, sitting without a jury, found the petitioner to be incompetent and unlikely to obtain competency. In this appeal, the petitioner seeks to have the Court review the lower court’s rulings and find that West Virginia Code §27-6A-6, which bars jury trials for those who are mentally incompetent, is unconstitutional.