European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 21, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Doily Magazine  Justice and the deaf mute w by Marc Wilson asm dated i Pron Hen the Law first took hold of Donah Lang in us 20th the Only word he Tad Ever spoken was those hot 20 while Mamma tried Normal that was alive Seei for an illiterate deaf a broken in Mouw marriage living in Chicago Mack then Julia and Donald got into and in a bizarre do the Law twice Donald Lang was accused of in ims and he spent 12 years in or mental institution await judgement on the but Tea a judgment the courts say cant be rendered on a Man who knows no cant comprehend the a cant understand Why he spent hundreds of hours in court while judges and attorneys wondered what to the Legal system to Don to turning him Loose despite the argument of prosecutors that the last time Lang was freed euqued attorneys argued that he cant be kept in jail with out Prospect of a trial that could Clear his family says be stands a better Chance on Chicago streets than ii Yew look at him Yoa cant Ted anything i wrong Witk says his older Hes damned smart and be proved it on the streets before All this mimicking others and managing to obey gestures from friends and Lang became Streetwise without Ever learning to read Street at work As a teenager he readily did what was conveyed to without hear he  Tell you his shirt size but he bought his own clothes with his own he  hear music or but he loved to run a Ferris wheel at a Carni remarkable achievements against dismal and then a prostitute was found stabbed to death in an Alley behind a tavern a few blocks from the Public hous ing project where Lang lived with two Brothers and a Lang was the last person seen with bloody cloth ing was found in is Jill and a murder indictment the situation would eerily repeat itself six years Lang is beyond the reach of the says Lowell his defense attorney at the first trial in you cant try you cant convict him and you cant bold Meyers too is one reason a circuit court asked him to defend son of deaf mute didst become totally deaf until he was he reads but 1  communicate with Hes been deaf since Early perhaps from and never Learned sign he was lost to language forever when he was 6 and the schools  accept Julius Lang says his brother was sent Home on his first Day in Public school because of his Donalds Mother tried to place him in a preschool pro later she tried to put him in various special pro but he want accepted in 1966 he was declared physically and mentally in competent to stand with a mental age of Between 6 and Lang was committed to a maximum Security psychiatric institution at Meyers and langs family complained that Lang want Safe at Chester As a deaf mute a Likely target of inmate abuse and a year later he was transferred to a school for the mentally retarded at on orders of the Illinois supreme the findings there deepened the courts a neurologist there didst think that Lang was As mentally retarded As indicated and that in any Case his Handicap was physical rather than usually caused by brain damage or is the loss of Power to understand and use severe Chicken pox in Early infancy might have brought on the brain whatever the David superin Len dental do reported 19m Ted Donald it appears that be will never acquire the necessary communications skills needed to participate or cooperate at us thereupon Meyers went to the state supreme court that Lang was being held in custody to earn something the experts said he could never you cant keep a Man in custody All his life just for being accused of a the supreme court agreed he should either be Given an Opportunity to obtain a or should be re meantime a key witness had evidence was the murder charge Wai dismissed in february Lang went to live with his father and step Moth he returned to work at the loading docks at South water a place he had always a place where he was it also was a place where prostitutes u the body of one of them was found la the closet of a hotel where she and according to had checked in the night once Pouce found blood on langs clothes in us this time he was tried in january convicted and sentenced to 14 to 25 years to be served in the depart ment of corrections special treatment Center at three years the Illinois appellate court overturned the conviction on grounds that he haunt been competent to stand Lang should be the court said but Only after he is Able to assist in his the ruling left society without says Timo thy an assistant states attorney for Cook there is nothing in our judicial system that gives the state authority to hold a Man just As a dangerous person and the appellate court rejected the defense claim that there was insufficient Evi Dence to convict the evidence is but theres no Way to make him competent to stand hearings on that Point in 1976 resulted in a ruling by judge Joseph Schneider that Lang was not mentally in competent but still physically unable to stand a baffled Legal system turned Lang Lang is beyond the reach of the Law you cant Fry you cant convict him and you cant hold Over to the Illinois department of mental health for but then the deportment said it  bold him because it lacked authority Over persons Only physically last the Agency returned Lang to Cook county Jall that action and the departments failure to develop a program to train Lang prompted judge Schneider to threaten its Robert with contempt of Donald int mentally retarded or developmentally disabled under our Devito explained to a re we cant have someone physically disabled institutionalized in a mental its happened in the i wont allow it to happen the departments action forced Schneider to set Bond for he would be the judge if he could pay 10 percent of Bond and if Lang could be placed by his attorneys in a program that would help him to become competent to stand this Means hell be on the Street again with no guarantee of slates attorney Szwed and theres no guarantee he wont kill if be does and is arrested theres no Guaran that Well be Able to do anything with in the Way things Are there will never be a guarantee that society can do anything to protect itself from Donald then whats to be done says Szwed the state disagrees that Lang is not mentally if he is ruled mentally the mental health department can hold him in a secure envy that would be to society Benefit and probably to Donald langs Mark one of langs attorneys education is the Only we Are convinced that Lang is and that if he could be educated to communicate he could help us Clear he has never been convicted of any crime and has a Normal if he haunt been neglected by the state throughout his if he haunt been rejected by the Public we  have this Julius Donalds older brother i think Hes Ca Pable of they never let him into now Treyve had him in custody for most of 12 years and they Haven taught him society would be Safe with Donald Julius Lang but id be Happy if the state kept him another couple of years if they would teach him he can t even say Mamma subject of judicial dilemma deaf mute Donald implicated in two january 1978 the stars and stripes Page 13