United States v. Pedro Godinez-Ortez

BACKGROUND

On March 29, 2007, Pedro Godinez-Ortiz, a citizen of Mexico, was arrested as he walked across the United States/ Mexico International Boundary. Godinez-Ortiz had been removed to Mexico from the United States just fifteen days earlier, after serving a prison sentence for a 1999 conviction for manslaughter in California. On April 25, 2007, he was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of California on one charge of attempted reentry after deporta- tion in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) and (b). The next day, Godinez-Ortiz moved for a competency examination pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4241, which was thereafter conducted. On June 21, 2007, Magistrate Judge Louisa S. Porter found Godinez- Ortiz incompetent to stand trial. Godinez-Ortiz was commit- ted to the custody of the Attorney General pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4241(d) for hospitalization and treatment for a period not to exceed four months, in order to determine whether there was a substantial probability that in the foresee- able future he would attain the capacity to permit the trial to proceed.

On July 9, 2007, Godinez-Ortiz was admitted to the Federal Medical Facility in Butner, North Carolina…