Is Amanda Bynes Fit To Stand Trial?

Amanda Bynes Image by Reuters

By Anne Cohen September 25, 2013

Amanda Bynes’ lawyer does not deem her mentally fit to stand trial.

RadarOnline reports that documents filed Tuesday morning at the LAX Airport courthouse by attorney Rich Hutton indicate that the troubled starlet is in no condition to understand the nature of the legal proceedings currently pending against her.

Bynes was supposed appear before a judge today to answer for her DUI arrest in April 2012.

California Penal Code 1368 states that if “counsel informs the court that he or she believes the defendant is, or may be, mentally incompetent, the court shall order that the question of the defendant mental competence is to be determined in a hearing.”

The 27-year-old is currently under a mandated psychiatric hold at a hospital in Southern California. She was admitted in July after setting a fire in a driveway in a California suburban neighborhood.

Bynes’ mother Lynn currently controls her health and financial decisions under a temporary conservatorship, which expires on September 27. At that time, a judge will decide whether or not it should made permanent.

Anne Cohen was the Forward’s deputy digital media editor. When she’s not looking for the secret Jewish history of Voodoo in New Orleans, or making lists about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she writes for The Assimilator. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with an M.S. magazine concentration in 2012.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO