A federal judge is hearing arguments about whether a competency evaluation is needed for the leader of the cultlike Zizians group that has been linked to six deaths. Jack LaSota, a transgender woman who goes by “Ziz,” was charged with illegal gun possession by a fugitive after her arrest last year. Her lawyers asked a judge Thursday to order a psychological evaluation, citing reasonable cause to believe she is incompetent to stand trial. Authorities have called LaSota the apparent leader of a group tied to six deaths in three states.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has commuted the death sentence of a 75-year-old inmate who was set to be executed this week even though he was not in the building when the victim was killed. Ivey on Tuesday reduced Charles “Sonny” Burton’s sentence to life in prison without possibility of parole. Burton was sentenced to death for the shooting death of Doug Battle during a 1991 robbery. However, another man shot Battle when Burton had left the building. The shooter’s death sentence was later reduced on appeal to life imprisonment. Ivey said she thought it would be “unjust" to execute Burton, considering that the shooter was spared the death penalty.