Michael Hayes doesn't show signs of a mental illness and does not appear to be a danger to society, two mental-health professionals testified Monday in a hearing in Forsyth Superior Court to determine if Hayes should be released from Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh.
Hayes killed four people and wounded five others in a 1988 shooting spree on Old Salisbury Road. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and has spent the past 20 years at Dorothea Dix Hospital being treated for mental illness. In 2007, after a hearing, Judge Steve Balog ordered him recommitted to the hospital. In 2008, Hayes waived his right to a hearing and appealed Balog's ruling. Last year, the N.C. Court of Appeals ruled that Hayes could be discharged from Dorothea Dix "with conditions," if a local judge approves it.
Until that ruling, the judge's only options were to recommit Hayes to the hospital or release him with no checks on his behavior.
At issue in today's ruling is if Hayes should be recommitted, released without conditions or released with conditions.
Charles Vance and Mark Hazelrigg, who work at Dorothea Dix, both reaffirmed their testimony from 2007 that Hayes has no current signs of a mental illness and is not a danger to the public. But under cross-examination, they acknowledged that there is a risk that Hayes could be violent again.
Comment:
He wasn't crazy when he committed these crimes, he was high as a kite. Even the W-S Journal printed the cocktail of drugs that he was on. He should be released to spend the rest of his life in a prison cell at Central Prison in Raleigh. What is our world coming to? Are we going to release a man who killed and injured numerous people?
Tell me what you think.
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