Mandatory suicide watch for terrorists and assassins

"When a judge offers an apology to a man accused of attempting to assassinate the president, you know something needs to change."

 Monty L. Donohew  

"A 30-day review is more than reasonable for a person charged with the willingness to sacrifice his own life in the taking of others’ lives.  Anything less is an invitation to more evidence lost, more martyrs created, and more condolences to new victims." 

"Last week, a federal magistrate judge in Washington, D.C. offered an apology to the man charged with trying to assassinate President Donald Trump in the middle of the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.  Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old California man who allegedly stormed a security checkpoint armed with a shotgun and knives on April 25, 2026, had been placed on suicide watch in the D.C. jail.  His lawyers complained that it was “demeaning” and amounted to “functionally solitary confinement.”  The judge, “fascinated and disturbed,” agreed, publicly apologized to the suspect, and ensured that the watch was lifted.  Prosecutors had noted that Allen told investigators he never expected to survive the attack, a detail that should have screamed “high suicide risk” to anyone with common sense.

"Judicial theater that elevates the feelings of a would-be presidential assassin (or his lawyer) over public safety, national security, protection of the accused, and the basic imperative to keep dangerous defendants alive long enough to face accountability is simply unacceptable.  It is time for Congress and state legislatures to enact a clear, narrow mandate: Any individual charged with or credibly suspected of terrorism, attempted assassination of a public official, or mass murder must be placed on continuous suicide watch upon arrest and detention.  No exceptions, no judicial discretion to coddle, and no apologies to the perpetrators.

"The reasons are straightforward and compelling.

"First, suicide in such cases is inherently an obstruction of justice and destruction of evidence.  Suicide destroys evidence — perhaps the only evidence — of conspirators and inciters.  These attacks rarely occur in a vacuum.  Even when the shooter appears to act alone, as authorities currently claim about Allen, digital trails, writings, communications, and potential co-conspirators often exist.  A successful suicide, however, allows the perpetrator to take his secrets to the grave.  It also removes the perpetrator as a possible witness.  Families of victims, investigators, and the American people deserve every scrap of information and every possible witness about and against co-conspirators, those who radicalized the killer, those who provided material support, and those who may have looked the other way.  Allowing a terrorist or assassin to check out early is a permanent loss of evidence, a loss enabled by the state itself."

"Critics will wave the Eighth Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment) and the presumption of innocence.  But suicide watch is not punishment; it is a protective medical and security protocol, not at all different from involuntary psychiatric holds or medical restraints used every day in hospitals and jails for suicidal individuals.  The Supreme Court has long recognized that the state has a compelling interest in preserving the lives of those in its custody, particularly when their deaths could harm public safety or the administration of justice.  Moreover, protecting the life of a person and insulating that person from self-harm is hardly cruel or unusual punishment." . . .  More...

"Licensed to practice law since 1987, Monty has been admitted to practice in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois and currently practices in Ohio and Missouri. Admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, and before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, he is a member of several state and local bar associations, among them being the Ohio State Bar Association,  Missouri Bar Association, Akron Bar Association, and St. Louis County Bar Association." . . .