What Makes a CPL 730 Competency Report Decision-Useful to a New York Court

Stephan M. Carlson, MD, MBA, FAPA · Criminal Competency and Responsibility

A judge does not need to be told the defendant is mentally ill. The court needs to know whether this defendant can understand the proceedings and assist counsel today, and if not, what it would take to get there. A report that supplies a diagnosis but leaves those questions unanswered forces the court to do the examiner's work. The report has to answer the question the order asked A CPL 730 order does not commission a psychiatric workup; it asks whether the defendant is an "incapacitated person" — one who, owing to mental disease or defect, lacks capacity to understand the proceedings against him or to assist in his own defense (CPL 730.10[1]). Under the examination procedure, two qualified

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