United States v. Louis Joseph Marion Marvin Ives

Louis Joseph Marion Marvin Ives was indicted in 1971 for a murder committed that year in Indian country, but he was then incompetent to stand trial. A trial was started in February 1972, but ended in a mistrial when the trial judge became convinced that Ives was still not competent to stand trial. In November 1972 another trial ended with a jury verdict of guilty. Ives appealed, and this court affirmed the judg ment; but the Supreme Court vacated judgment and remanded the cause for another examination into the competence of Ives to stand trial. Ives was granted a new trial. He was convicted again at the third trial conducted in October 1978. Ives again appeals.

Ives’ history of mental illness goes back at least to 1968. He has been in federal custody at Springfield, Missouri, most of the time since 1971. There is little doubt that he suffers from paranoid manifestations of the group of disorders doctors call schizophrenia. His condition has not improved since it was first called to the attention of government (Bureau of Indian Affairs) personnel in 1968. The government contends, however, that notwithstanding the mental disorder for which Ives has been treated for more than ten…