Feds Pursue Case Against Alice Boland

Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson announced five charges carrying a total of up to 46 years in penalties against Alice Boland, the 28-year-old woman accused of trying to fire a gun outside Ashley Hall in early February.

Boland has been indicted on one count of attempted murder, two counts of pointing/presenting a firearm, one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime and one count of unlawful carrying of a pistol, according to documents provided by Wilson's office.

Wilson said while both state and federal prosecutors are pursuing charges against Boland for the same incident the concept of double jeopardy doesn't apply in this case.

"Many of you may of heard before of a concept in the law called double jeopardy, that is not an issues in the is case, the Feds and the state are considered different sovereigns and we can move forward," Wilson said.

The decision was made to allow federal prosecutors first crack at Boland because if state level charges were adjudicated first requirements in place at the Department of Justice make the process of prosecuting the federal charges more difficult, Wilson said. She added that it could take up to a year for the federal case to play out.

Wilson spent several minutes during the press conference she called Wednesday to announce the charges discussing what happens when a defendant may be suffering from mental illness. It has been previously reported that Boland was found not guilty by reason of insanity in another case prior to her arrest in February, and that she should not have been able to legally purchase the gun she allegedly used because of that finding.

First, Wilson said a defendant has to be found competent to stand trial, which focuses on a person's current mental state and his or her ability to assist in a defense, not his or her mental state at the time of the alleged crime. Once competency has been established, medical experts would begin examining that defendant's medical history to determine if he or she understood right from wrong at the time he or she allegedly committed a crime.

In South Carolina in addition to a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity, a defendant with mental health issues can be found guilty but mentally ill. If someone is found guilty but mentally ill he or she will still be required to serve his or her full sentence, but will receive mental health treatment while serving the sentence.

Wilson said she supports the recent gun bill in the South Carolina General Assembly and said the focus needs to be on fixing problems with the mental health system in the United States, not on banning weapons.

"I personally think this whole focus on gun control is wasted energy, the focus needs to be on the mental health system," Wilson said. "Too often our mental health system is our prison system. We have budgetary problems from one end of the government to the other, but the issue here in my mind regarding what's going on with the legislation and what's going on with mass shootings is in the mental health aspect of it versus the gun aspect of it."