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Jackpine Radical

(45,274 posts)
6. OK, forgive a technical note--
Mon Jan 7, 2013, 08:23 PM
Jan 2013

the issue of competency to stand trial is different from that of criminal responsibility.

Competency to stand trial actually has a much higher standard--you have to be found unable to participate in your defense. For example, not able to understand the court proceedings or unable to give useful information to your attorney.

He could be restored to competency to stand trial with medication, for example, and at that point he would be tried. He or his attorney could then raise the defense of Not Guilty by Reason of Mental Disease or Defect (the so-called Insanity Defense, commonly abbreviated NGI, Not Guilty by reason of Insanity), which would then require a separate mental examination in which the doctors would attempt to determine whether or not he met the criteria for legal insanity at the time of the crime.

The criteria for insanity vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, some still using the old M'Naughten Rule and some having virtually eliminated the NGI but the most common (and most modern) standard is the American Law Institute (ALI) standard. According to the ALI standard, one has to convince the trier of fact that at the time of the crime he either a) did not understand that what he did was wrong or b) despite understanding the wrongness of his action, was unable to refrain from doing it.

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