People v. Vernagallo (Amicus)

The ACLU of Colorado filed an amicus brief in support of a petition for certiorari asking the Colorado Supreme Court to decide whether the state hospital’s nine-month delay in sending Mr. Vernagallo to restoration services is attributable to the government for the purpose of his constitutional right to a speedy trial.

Mr. Vincente Vernagallo languished in custody for two years, for much of that time in acute psychosis, before being brought to trial on two simple, low-level felonies. For nine months of this period, he was waiting for the Colorado Department of Human Services, specifically the Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo (the state hospital), to provide him the restoration services to which he was constitutionally entitled.

Mr. Vernagallo appealed, arguing that his speedy trial right had been violated by the delays at the state hospital. The prosecution argued that the government wasn’t responsible for the delays in providing Mr. Vernagallo treatment at the state hospital, he was. The Court of Appeals found that the delays, whoever they were caused by, were insufficient to find a constitutional speedy trial violation. Mr. Vernagallo now seeks certiorari on whether the state hospital’s nine-month delay in providing evaluation and restoration violated his constitutional speedy trial right.

The ACLU of Colorado wrote as amicus curiae to call to the Court’s attention the rarity of the petition and the importance of the issue. Cases involving in-custody competency restoration, like Mr. Vernagallo’s, are exceedingly unlikely to reach trial, both because of legal and extralegal factors that push these cases toward pleas. Plea agreements cut off most subsequent appeals, leaving important constitutional questions about competency to stand trial, like this one, unresolved. We urged the Court to take the case and clarify that state hospital delays are caused by the state – not by vulnerable, incapacitated, incarcerated defendants.