Convict asks for hearing-loss surgery

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January 14, 2006

Convict asks for hearing-loss surgery

A man charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of a fellow inmate at a state prison 12 years ago wants Madison County to pay for a $60,000 operation that may restore his hearing so he can understand the proceedings.

Robert Barnett, 53, of Indianapolis was charged in August with stabbing convicted burglar Ricky Combs, 28, of Austin in January 1993 while the two were inmates at the Pendleton Correctional Facility. Combs, who had been sentenced in 1986 from Jackson County, died from multiple stab wounds.

Defense attorney Bryan Williams said Barnett is deaf and an evaluation at an Indianapolis hospital found he needed a cochlear implant to possibly restore his hearing. Cochlear implants send auditory signals to the brain to restore hearing in people with certain types of hearing loss.

"The estimated cost is $60,000 to the county for the operation," Williams said. "If the county wants him in jail, it should pay for the surgery."

Williams said without the surgery Barnett can’t go on trial.

"He can’t read lips and doesn’t know sign language," Williams said of Barnett. "The only way he can communicate is by reading notes. He has a hard time reading, and a trial could take months."

Madison Superior Court Judge Thomas Newman Jr. said he was not going to order the surgery and said it was his intent to move forward with a February trial.

County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings said Williams was asking for either the charge to be dismissed or to find a way for Barnett to communicate. He said there are several options available, including the hiring of someone to transcribe the testimony.

"We have to find some way for him to understand what is going on and understand the testimoney," Cummings said.

Source: http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/13626919.htm
 
Martin Luther King Jr. preached that all men are created equal...

So let him have the surgery.
 
Asking me to pay crook for this implants with my tax dollars?

I will be damn pissed off giving crooks too much rights! ENUFF is ENUFF!
 
I'm with Diehardbiker No way I'm going to pay for his implant either. :thumbd:
 
Many people want to see other people suffer and they love it..

Especially people who agree with death penalty.

In other thread, you guys scorn Governor Schwarzenegger for not showing compassion toward a deaf and blind convict on death row....

Hypocrite.

Just because somebody is bad, doesn't mean we all have to be bad....

If we gives this guy surgery... instead of making him angry more.... Then he'll realize there are good people out there and he'll feel guilty for taking someone life.
 
Yes, but why should WE have to pay? He's a criminal.......it's hard for people with insurance to get stuff like CIs.....why should a criminal get one scot free? I mean it's already costing us millions of dollars to keep him incarinrated!
 
deafdyke said:
Yes, but why should WE have to pay? He's a criminal.......it's hard for people with insurance to get stuff like CIs.....why should a criminal get one scot free? I mean it's already costing us millions of dollars to keep him incarinrated!
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Very well said!!!
 
This sort of case causes all sorts of problems...

If the defendant cannot defend himself or herself in a court of law because he or she cannot understand the proceedings, what he or she is being charged with, etc. then the entire notion of a fair trial flies right out the window. Yes, he's a criminal and he might be guilty, but then again, maybe he's innocent. We can't send an innocent man off to be executed or spend the rest of his life in jail... And the man cannot defend himself if he can't communicate in the court, so it would be a one-sided argument by the prosecutor.

How would you like being arrested for something that you didn't do in a foreign country, been effectively denied access to a lawyer because you're deaf or don't understand the lawyer's native language, and then being convicted and sentenced for a crime that you don't even know what it is? I certainly wouldn't be happy about that.


The problem lies in the fact that CIs cost a lot of money. If a doctor who does audiology stuff thinks that a CI is the only way he would be able to hear, should the government pay for the surgery and the processor? The answer to that question is a little murky. You can't prosecute a person in the US if it would be an unfair trial... Prosecuting a deaf man who can't communicate at all would consitute an unfair trial. If he can't communicate and the district cannot accomodate him, he has to be acquitted by US law. So the question becomes, is it OK to let a person who prosecutors believe they can prove is a murder go free or should the district pay for the surgery?

I'm not really sure what my own opinion is on the matter... Just stating the implications that some of you might not be thinking about.
 
teach him how to sign, its a hell of a lot cheeper then sugery and then hearing training if the implants even work , thay did say for the posibility of hearing right?
 
Kateweb said:
teach him how to sign, its a hell of a lot cheeper then sugery and then hearing training if the implants even work , thay did say for the posibility of hearing right?
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That would be conventional wisdom, but can you really expect them to wait until he's a really good signer (something that could take a few months) to go ahead with the trial?
 
Correctional facilities are a place of detention and imprisonment. Not freebies.
 
No, just give him transcribed notes/questions asked by the DA & defense and have him answer from there...
 
Does he want an olive with that surgery? Imagine if this guy needed a penile implant..... :rofl:
 
Exactly.....hire a c-print person to do that sort of stuff....He DOES not need a free implant!
 
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