Evaluations of Urban Sovereign Citizens' Competency to Stand Trial

Article Figures & Data

Table 1

Comparison of Competent and Not Competent Sovereign Citizens

	Competent (n = 24) (%)	Not Competent (n = 11) (%)	χ²	p
History of psychiatric hospitalization	3/24 (13)	5/11 (45)	4.646	.031^*
Primary diagnosis
Psychotic disorder	2/24 (8)	8/11 (73)	15.326	.000^***
Mood disorder	4/24 (17)	2/11 (18)	.012	.912
Substance use history	8/24 (33)	3/11 (27)	.129	.720
No psychiatric diagnosis	12/24 (50)	1/11 (9)	5.407	.020^*
Legal charges
Felony offense	14/24 (58)	7/11 (64)	.088	.766

N = 35. Includes information on 35 of the 36 sovereign citizen defendants because the reports on one case omitted the finding on competency. Percentages do not equal 100. Each percentage is the ratio of the group under consideration to the total number of competent or not competent sovereign citizens.
↵* p ≤ .05.
↵*** p ≤ .01.

Table 2

Comparison of Sovereign Citizen Group and Nonsovereign Citizen Group

	Sovereign Citizens (n = 36) (%)	Non Sovereign Citizens (n = 200) (%)	Chi-square (χ²)	P
Demographics
Male	36/36 (100)	172/200 (86)	5.72	.017^*
African-American	33/35 (94)	134/200 (67)	10.79	.001^{^†}
High school graduate or GED	23/28 (82)	70/177 (40)	17.70	.000^{^†}
History of psychiatric hospitalization	9/36 (25)	144/200 (72)	29.56	.000^{^†}
Primary diagnosis
Psychotic disorder	11/36 (31)	114/200 (57)	8.56	.003^{^†}
Mood disorder	6/36 (17)	93/200 (47)	11.15	.001^*
Substance use history	11/36 (31)	135/200 (68)	17.65	.000^{^†}
No psychiatric diagnosis	13/36 (36)	1/200 (0.5)	69.33	.000^{^†}
Legal variables
Felony offense	21/36 (58)	106/200 (53)	0.35	.555
CST	24/35 (69)	96/200 (48)	5.04	.025^*

Reports on 23 nonsovereign citizen cases omitted information on education. Percentages do not equal 100. Each percentage is the ratio of the group under consideration to the total number of sovereign citizens or nonsovereign citizens.
↵* p ≤ .05.
↵† p ≤ .01.