What do you do when you have convincing evidence that an illegal alien has murdered someone, but, because he is deaf, mute, and dumb, you can't communicate with him?

The man who raped and strangled 16-year-old Brittany Binger left a wealth of DNA evidence at the scene. He attacked her on a long-ago winter night as she walked beside a country road called Pocahontas Trail. Authorities found his semen in the victim and slivers of his scratched-off skin under her fingernails.

Seven weeks later, on Feb. 18, 2005, detectives in James City County clapped handcuffs on Martinez, then 33, a Salvadoran immigrant who had been in the United States illegally for months. After DNA tests confirmed that the semen and torn pieces of skin were his, police said, he was charged with capital murder.

Unable to read, write or enunciate more than a few small words, Martinez communicates mainly through pantomime, grunts and crude drawings. 

At this point, the WaPo insists he is not dumb, and yet he is incapable of learning sign language.  Even chimpanzees can learn sign language!

As a result, even though experts say he is not psychotic or severely intellectually impaired, he remains legally incompetent to stand trial because he cannot assist in his defense or understand what is happening in a courtroom. Now 45, he is housed in a secure state hospital, possibly not eligible for deportation and still presumed innocent in Brittany’s death.

... the potential looms that someday, Martinez will go free.

His lawyer is busy trying to free him.  Some day, he will succeed.

I have to wonder if Martinez is playing dumb.  Perhaps he can't understand nuclear physics, but I think they can communicate simple concepts like a photo of the dead girl and his assumed involvement through a simple exercise in charades...or maybe through a "crude drawing."

And if Martinez can't communicate with anyone or understand instruction, then by definition he is a danger to society because he can't be presumed to obey our laws.  He reminds me of a little of Jack Nicholson's character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, who evaded trial by claiming he was crazy...and we all know how that turned out.

I fear that Martinez is a modern-day Lennie Small from Of Mice and Men, doing his "tend the rabbits" routine with that poor girl and who knows whom else.

It's a good thing we have unrestricted immigration, because we always get the best and brightest, like Martinez, the deaf, mute, dumb grunting killing man.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at NewsMachete.com.