DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — A judge has ordered a mental health evaluation to see whether a man accused of trying to kill his wife in Dubuque was competent to enter a plea.
The Telegraph Herald reports that Judge Monica Wittig on Monday ordered a competency evaluation on 52-year-old Clifford Smiley, an inmate at Anamosa State Penitentiary.
The evaluation will be performed by an independent expert, to be paid by a defense fund for indigent people. Wittig had ordered a state-funded evaluation at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville, but prosecutors argued in opposition that the center’s charter doesn’t allow evaluations after criminal proceedings are complete.
In his request for the evaluation, Smiley says he was bipolar, off his medication and addicted to heroin when he entered an Alford plea to attempted murder. In an Alford plea, a person doesn’t admit guilt but acknowledges there is enough evidence to convict.
Prosecutors say Smiley stabbed his estranged wife in a Dubuque parking lot on April 1.
